CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: DR. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

Business / Qatar Business

Vodafone Qatar reports highest 149% quarterly net profit growth in history

Published: 01 May 2019 - 01:08 am | Last Updated: 04 Nov 2021 - 06:34 pm
Peninsula

The Peninsula

DOHA: Vodafone Qatar reported a net profit of QR44m for the first quarter of this financial year ended March 31 (Q1 2019), representing a QR26m, or 149 percent, year-on-year increase and the highest quarterly net profit in the Company’s history.

Vodafone Qatar maintained its strong financial performance into the start of 2019 led by a continued growth in its postpaid subscribers and expanding its cost optimisation programme.

Total revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2019 increased year-on-year to reach QR535m driven by higher postpaid and fixed revenues.

EBITDA for the period increased by 34 percent year-on-year to reach QR181m primarily due to higher revenue, lower costs and the application of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 16, re-classing long term lease costs to below EBITDA. Consequently, EBITDA Margin reached 33.8 percent. EBITDA excluding the IFRS 16 adjustment, increased 17.9 percent or QR24m year-on-year.

Reported mobile customers at 1.7 million, reflects a 334 thousand increase year-on-year, due to strong postpaid subscriber growth and from the positive impact of changing the definition of prepaid subscribers to align with the International Telecommunications Union’s and Qatar Communication and Regulatory Authority’s definition.

Commenting on the first quarter results, Sheikh Hamad Abdulla Jassim Al Thani, CEO, Vodafone Qatar, said: “The momentum gained in 2018 for delivering strong financial and operational performance has continued through to 2019’s first quarter. This clearly shows that we are executing on the Company’s solid strategy.”

Sheikh Hamad added: “We are committed to lead the delivery of innovation in Qatar by building a digital ecosystem fuelled by a state of the art communications infrastructure that will benefit consumers and businesses alike. In addition to expanding our portfolio of services and enhancing our network, we are proudly marking major technological milestones for Vodafone and Qatar such as the first live 5G mobile call using a 5G handset in the region.”

He further added that the deployment of 5G and fibre continues and the company has some exciting plans for maximising the new growth opportunities that both technologies will bring. “We have completed fibre roll-out in several strategic areas with customers there now actively using our various services. Moreover, we recently announced that 5G technology is commercially available to our customers with the launch of Vodafone GigaHome- the new home internet solution.”