Ooredoo Kuwait Blames FX Losses, Higher Costs As Q4 Profit Wiped Out

Ooredoo Kuwait, the country’s No.3 mobile operator by subscribers, blamed on Monday foreign exchange losses, investments in Algeria and restructuring costs in Tunisia for wiping out its fourth-quarter profit.

The firm, a subsidiary of Qatar’s Ooredoo, made zero net profit in the three months to Dec. 31, down from KD18.4 million ($62.2 million) in the year-earlier period.

EFG Hermes forecast Ooredoo Kuwait would make a quarterly profit of KD13.95 million.

Domestically, Ooredoo Kuwait competes with Zain and third entrant Viva, an affiliate of Saudi Telecom Co .

Ooredoo Kuwait has slipped to third in terms of mobile subscribers as Viva’s aggressive pricing wooed customers. That helped spark a sustained profit slide for a company that also has operations in Algeria, Tunisia, the Maldives and the Palestinian Territories.

The company’s 2014 annual profit was KD45.7 million, down from KD76.1 million in 2013.

It has proposed a dividend of KD0.070 per share. It paid KD0.125 per share for 2013, according to Reuters data.

Ooredoo owns 92.1 per cent of Ooredoo Kuwait.