Ooredoo Kuwait reports surge in Q1 net profit

Mobile operator Ooredoo Kuwait reported a 356 per cent rise in first quarter net profit on Tuesday, as non-core revenue jumped.

The subsidiary of Qatar’s Ooredoo competes domestically with Zain and Saudi Telecom Co (STC) affiliate Viva Kuwait.

Ooredoo Kuwait made a net profit of 10.21m dinars ($33.84m) in the three months to March 31, it said in a statement, up from 2.24m dinars a year earlier.

EFG Hermes forecast Ooredoo Kuwait would make a quarterly profit of 4.63m dinars.

Revenue rose to 175.3m dinars from 174.3m a year earlier.

It reported non-core revenue of 873,000 dinars versus a loss of 10.9m a year earlier. The company did not elaborate on what non-core revenue included.

The company was hit by an 89 per cent fall in profit during the same quarter last year as its business was hurt by foreign-exchange losses from its Tunisia and Algeria operations.

The company had reported falling earnings in six of the previous seven quarters, which included a loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 hurt by domestic competition and foreign exchange losses in Algeria and Tunisia.