Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) has announced that its full-year revenue grew by 9.2% to hit AED12.75 billion ($3.4 billion) on sustained demand for broadband services and 5G handsets as well as a gradual recovery of mobile services.
Announcing its financial results for the year-ended December 31, 2022, EITC said its net profit reached AED1.22 billion, up 10% over the previous year, as higher ebitda and lower net finance costs were offset by an increase in depreciation and royalty charges.
Last year, EITC had invested AED2.2 billion as evidenced by the rapid 5G network roll-out. Operating Free Cash Flow (ebitda – Capex) for the year increased by 47.3% to AED 2.9 billion thanks to higher ebitda and the start of normalization of capex spend.
Revenues in Q4 staged a remarkable growth (+8.0%) thanks to continued strength in service revenues. Full-year ebitda grew by 12.0% to AED5.14 billion reflecting strong growth in service revenues and margin expansion as well as containment of cost increase despite inflationary pressure.
On its 2022 operating highlights, the Emirati telecom group said its mobile customer base grew 8.9% year-over-year and ended the year with 7.9 million subscribers on strong net-additions in the last quarter (494,000).
This performance reflects the growth in postpaid customers as well as a significant increase in prepaid customers during the fourth quarter.
Its postpaid customer base grew 10.7% to 1.5 million (Q4 2022 net-additions: 53,000) on healthy net-additions across the consumer and enterprise segments.
According to EITC, its fixed customer base increased by 37.3% year-over-year, while its prepaid customer base increased to 6.4 million subscribers (Q4 2022 net-additions: 441,000) driven in equal measures by population growth and high tourism activity.
The group ended the year with 537,000 subscribers on solid net-additions of 27,000 in Q4 (full-year 2022 net-additions: 146,000).
This solid performance was driven by its commercial initiatives across various product categories and the disciplined execution of our broadband strategy, it added.
On its Q4 results, EITC said its revenues for the three-month period ended December 31, 2022 grew by 8% year-over-year to AED3.3 billion, while its mobile service revenues in Q4 surged to 7.6% y-o-y to AED1.5 billion on resurgent postpaid revenues.
Mobile services revenues for the full-year hit AED5.74 billion, up 8.4% over 2021, it stated.
Impressed with the results, the board has recommended increasing the full-year dividend to 24 fils per share, out of which 11 fils per share were paid as an interim dividend in August 2022.
On its performance, Chairman Malek Sultan Al Malek said: "2022 was an extraordinary year. Our business performed exceptionally well thanks to a robust economic environment fueled by population growth, an increase in tourism activity, GDP growth as well as our strong commercial momentum."
"The delivery on our ambitious investment plans also allowed us to accelerate our growth and improve our positioning," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
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