MTC expects to double profit to record KD375m

KUWAIT: Mobile Telecommunications Company, the third-largest Gulf Arab telecom company by market value, expects to double profit this year to a record KD 375 million . “We will achieve record profits that will surpass the profits for 2002 five-fold,” Saad Al-Barrak, the Kuwaiti company’s chief executive, said at a company event late on Sunday. MTC earned KD 75.04 million in 2002 and KD 185.9 million last year, according to Reuters data. Arab telecoms companies, buoyed by record earnings and oil revenues generated by their government shareholders, have been on a spending spree in the last 18 months, buying companies from Pakistan and Italy to Africa.

MTC, which is 24.42 per cent owned by the government of Kuwait, last year bought Netherlands-based Celtel with operations in Africa for $3.36 billion.
Al-Barrak said 2006 revenue at MTC, which has 25 million subscribers in 20 nations in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, will be about $4.5 billion. That compares with KD 579.5 million ($2 billion) last year.
“MTC is now the fourth largest (telecom) company based on geographical coverage,” Al-Barrak said at the event.
The company plans to more than double subscriber numbers to 50 million within five years, possibly expanding operations into Asia and eastern Europe, Al-Barrak told the Kuwait News Agency last month. The agency did not give details.
MTC, whose remaining shares are traded on the Kuwaiti stock exchange, may post an average 87.3 percent increase in third-quarter net profit, three analysts said in a Reuters earnings survey last month. See [nL30893867] for more details on the forecast.
Net income may rise to an average KD 87.08 million in the three months to Sept 30, compared with KD46.69 million  in the year earlier period, according to the forecast.
MTC operates in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, and about 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. – Reuters

Source- http://www.kuwaittimes.net