Omantel Q4 Profit Up 13% Despite Revenue Drop

Oman Telecommunications (Omantel) reported a 13 per cent rise in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday despite a slight drop in revenue as costs also fell.

The former monopoly made a net profit of OMR29.7 million ($77.14 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, up from OMR26.2 million in the year-earlier period, according to Reuters calculations.

Two analysts polled by Reuters forecast Omantel would make a quarterly profit of between OMR27.6 million and OMR33.4 million.

Fourth-quarter revenue was OMR111.4 million, down from OMR116 million a year earlier.

Expenses for the quarter, which include wages, interconnection costs and roaming charges, were OMR84.3 million. This compares with OMR86.7 million in the final three months of 2012.

Omantel’s full-year profit for 2013 was OMR119.3 million, up from OMR116.2 million in 2012, the company said in a bourse filing.

The only other details Omantel provided in this statement were its annual revenue and expenses, but in the company’s nine-month results to Sept. 30 its finance income was OMR894,000.

This compares with a loss of OMR644,000 in the corresponding period of 2012, while its share of profit from associated companies including Pakistani subsidiary Worldcall nearly quadrupled to OMR908,000. Other income also jumped 90 per cent to OMR435,000 in the first nine months of 2013.

Domestically, Omantel competes with Nawras, a unit of Qatar’s Ooredoo.

Omantel also hosts two mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) Friendi and Renna.