UAE telco Du Q4 profit rises 15 percent

UAE telco Du Q4 profit rises 15 percent

UAE telecoms operator du on Tuesday reported a 15.4 percent rise in its fourth-quarter net profit before royalty payments, beating analysts estimates, as the telco added more subscribers during the quarter.

March 6, 2012 11:13 by Reuters

Du made a net profit before royalty of 497.4 million dirhams ($135.42 million), compared with a profit of 430.9 million dirhams in the same period a year ago, it said in a statement. It did not provide a net profit figure after royalty payments for the quarter.

Analysts polled by Reuters on average expected the firm to post a quarterly net profit of 270.7 million dirhams.

Du has proposed a dividend payment of 15 fils a share, its first payout to shareholders, the company said.

The UAE firm was instructed to pay a royalty of 15 percent on its 2011 net profit, plus a further 5 percent of revenue to the government on its 2011 profit, the firm said in February

Du said the move resulted in a royalty payment of 715 million dirhams for the year, compared with 184 million dirhams for the year earlier period.

Rival Etisalat, which operates in 17 countries, usually pays 50 percent of its net profit in royalties, including money earned abroad.

Du said it added 278,100 net active mobile customers in the fourth-quarter, bringing total mobile customer base to 5.2 million.

The company, which ended Etisalat’s domestic monopoly in 2007, said revenue was 2.4 billion dirhams in the quarter, up 17.9 percent from 2.05 billion dirhams a year earlier.

Du shares closed at 3.18 dirhams on the Dubai bourse Monday. ($1 = 3.6730 UAE dirhams) (Reporting by Dinesh Nair, Editing by Amena Bakr)