UAE Telco du Posts 18% Rise In Q3 Profit

Du, the United Arab Emirates’ No.2 telecom operator by subscriber numbers, reported a 17.8 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit on Tuesday, in line with analyst estimates as mobile data income and fixed line revenue grew.

The firm, which competes with Etisalat, made a net profit of Dhs558.7 million ($152 million) in the three months to Sept. 30, up from Dhs474.3 million in the year-earlier period.

Analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast du would make a quarterly profit of Dhs563.1 million.

Third-quarter revenue was Dhs3.03 billion, up from Dhs2.64 billion a year ago.

“Data continued to be a key market driver during the quarter,” chief executive Osman Sultan said in the statement.

“The world is evolving to incorporate integrated digital services into a commodity that is used throughout every aspect of our daily lives. The issue for the industry however, remains our ability to monetise data.”

Quarterly mobile revenue rose nine per cent year-on-year to Dhs2.24 billion. Quarterly mobile data revenue was Dhs684 million, up 11 per cent from a year ago.

Fixed line services revenue increased 36 per cent to 598 million over the same period.

Du said its average revenue per user (ARPU) – a key industry metric – fell slightly in the third quarter. It did not provide further details, but predicted ARPU would “remain steady over the coming quarters”.