DUBAI: Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates’ biggest telecoms operator by revenue and subscribers, missed analysts’ forecasts with a 70 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit yesterday after it took impairments on Nigerian and Indonesian operations.
The company also said it expected to complete a ¤3.9bn purchase of Paris-listed Vivendi’s 53 percent stake in Maroc Telecom, plus ¤300m in 2012 dividends from the Moroccan firm, by end-May. Etisalat, a former monopoly operating in about 15 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made a net profit of Dh1.45bn ($394.77m) in the three months to December 31.
Analysts polled gave a consensus forecast of fourth-quarter profit of Dh2.17bn. Of the Dh1.37bn in impairment charges, Dh516m related to loans to affiliate Etisalat Nigeria, in which it holds a 40 percent stake, with Dh506m relating to its 4.2 percent stake in Indonesia’s PT XL Axiata , Etisalat CFO Serkan Okandan said. The Indonesian Rupiah fell 26 percent against the dollar last year. The UAE dirham is pegged to the dollar.
Etisalat’s foreign operations accounted for 33 percent of the revenue in 2013, up from 28 percent a year earlier. Reuters
