Q1 2010 – Zain revenue up 11% & subscribers up 28%.

By Editor on May 13, 2010 · Leave a Comment

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zain announces today its consolidated financial results for the quarter ended 31 March, 2010. The results showed healthy growth in several key performance indicators:

Q1, 2010 Key Performance Indicators (in Kuwaiti Dinars)

Total Managed Active Customers	31.4 million up 28% on Q1, 2009
Consolidated Revenues	KWD 329.7 million (US$1.146 billion)
EBITDA	KWD 139.2 million (US$ 483.7 million)
EBIT	KWD 99.4 million (US$ 345.6 million)
Net Income	KWD 51.5 million (US$ 179.1 million)
EPS	KWD 0.013 (US$ 0.05)

For the first quarter of 2010, the Zain Group recorded consolidated revenues of KWD 329.7 million (US$ 1.146 billion), an increase of 11% compared to same period in Q1-2009. The Company’s consolidated EBITDA reached KWD 139.2 million (US$ 483.7 million), EBIT of KWD 99.4 million (US$345.6 million) and net income reaching KWD 51.55 (US$ 179.1 million).The earnings per share reached 13 fils (US$0.05).

Commenting on the results, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zain, Mr Asaad Al Banwan said: These results reflecting the Middle East operations are in line with adopted International Accounting Standards, which necessitates excluding all of Zain Africa’s 15 mobile operations, except for net profit, as the company entered into a definitive sale agreement with Bharti Airtel on March 30, 2010.â€

Mr Al Banwan added, Despite the economic crisis and the competitive markets in which we operate, we are extremely pleased with the 11% revenue increase which is in line with our expectations.â€

He further stated, The organic growth of the EBITDA and Net Income results is all the more impressive when one takes into account that in the same period last year (Q1-2009) we had several reversals of provisions including a favorable ruling resulting in an extraordinary gain of KWD33 million (US$116 million). This is an indication that EBITDA and Net Income growth in Q1, 2010 would have been much higher than stated, as without such provision reversals, the company would have had a respective growth of 14% in EBITDA and 24% in Net Income.â€

Mr Al Banwan also revealed that the quarter witnessed an increase in total shareholders’ equity of approximately 10 percent, reaching US$ 8.72 billion, compared with US$ 7.95 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2009.

Also commenting on the results, Zain Group CEO Mr Nabeel Bin Salamah said: “With the sale of the Zain Africa assets about to be concluded, the company will reengineer itself while at the same time focusing its resources on further increasing market leadership in the Middle East, offering customers the latest technologies and quality mobile services.â€

Mr Bin Salamah further added, These healthy results are a sign of better things yet to come as we diligently strive to maximise shareholders’ value in this new era. We will consider all options before us with extreme flexibility.â€

In recent years, Zain has invested heavily in network expansion in the region especially in vast countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan as well as technology upgrades in Bahrain and Kuwait, all resulting in robust customer acquisition and healthy revenues, a strategy that Bin Salamah was keen to emphasize. We expect to reap further financial rewards of these strategic and capital intensive investments in the years ahead,â€he said.

Filed under Mobile · Tagged with Acquisition, Africa, Airtel, Bahrain, banwan, Bharti, Bharti Airtel, CEO, chairman of the board, Customer Acquisition, EBITDA, Financial Results, Investment, Iraq, Jordan, key performance indicators, Kuwait, Middle East, Mobile, Mobile Operations, Net Profit, Network Expansion, Saudi Arabia, Shareholders, Sudan, Zain Africa, Zain Group

Global mobile phone mkt growth slowed in Q2-survey

By Editor on August 15, 2006 · Leave a Comment

AMSTERDAM, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Growth of the global mobile phone market slowed in the second quarter of 2006, a survey found on Thursday. Sales of mobile phones to consumers totaled 229 million units, an increase of 18.3 percent from the same period last year, which is a slowdown from the 23.8 percent growth in the first quarter, market research group Gartner said in a report. Gartner said the market was still on track to reach 960 million phones in 2006 and 238 million in the third quarter of 2006. Gartner is the only research group to measure sales to end users. Other research groups, which track shipments from vendors to retailers and not to end-users, reported shipments of around 235 million units in the quarter. The slowdown was mainly in the mature markets. “While mobile operators in the mature markets of Western Europe and North America struggled to keep up the customer acquisition growth seen in previous quarters, mobile operators in emerging markets continued to sign up new customers driving handset sales,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. Gartner’s sales data confirmed the trend identified by rival research groups last month that Motorola Inc. (MOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) was the biggest market share gainer in the quarter, followed by Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) and Sony Ericsson (6758.T: Quote, NEWS, Research)(ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) and that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research), LG Electronics Inc.(066570.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) and BenQ Mobile had lost market share.