REACHING
NEW HEIGHTS
Unlocking capital and maximising shareholder value
Dear Shareholders,
In 2023, Ooredoo marked significant strides towards its transformation into a smart telco, leveraging cutting-edge technology and strategic partnerships. Our disciplined strategy not only navigated industry complexities but also unlocked shareholder value through operational efficiencies and key strategic initiatives.
A testament to our success is the historic agreement with Zain Group and TASC Towers Holding, forming the largest telecommunications tower company in the MENA region. This milestone reflects both our ambition and the impact of our focused strategy.
Reflecting on the year’s achievements, I am pleased and proud that Ooredoo Group upheld its commitment to excellence across our global footprint, delivering robust connectivity, exceptional customer experiences, and maximising stakeholder value.
The strength of our commitment is reflected in our brand positioning, ‘Upgrade Your World’, with the promise to enable human progress through innovation. Our company culture - rooted in collaboration, innovation, and adaptability - provides the foundation for our continued success. We are ready to embrace the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
H.E. Sh. Faisal Bin Thani Al Thani
Group Chairman
12 February 2024
Read moreRead lessAll-time high reported Net Profit
Dear Shareholders,
Ooredoo's strategy aims to position the company as a dynamic and innovative player in the telecommunications industry, strategically evolving into a smart telco. The emphasis lies on efficiency, value creation, and a forward-looking approach to navigate industry dynamics with resilience and adaptability
Ooredoo’s commercial momentum accelerated throughout the year. Revenues for 2023 reached QR 23.2 billion, an increase of 2% compared to the same period last year. Most markets outperformed in 2023, with the strong performance from Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait and Maldives. Group Normalised EBITDA for 2023 was QR 9.6 billion with an EBITDA margin of 42%.
Reported Net Profit reached an all-time high of QR 3.0 billion for FY 2023. Normalised free cash flow (FCF) – one of our key metrics – increased 6% to reach QR 6.8 billion, mainly driven by strong operational performance.
Looking ahead, Ooredoo aims to build on its successful transformation to drive new revenue sources and sustain its strong financial position, delivering even greater value and returns for both our customers and shareholders as part of our efforts to Upgrade Your World.
Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ooredoo Group
12 February 2024
Read moreRead lessLeading in customer experience and innovation
Dear Shareholders,
Over the past two years, Ooredoo has undergone a significant transformation, aligning our ambition for high-performance with numerous initiatives to evolve our core telecom activities.
We are committed to strengthening our core business, focusing on delivering a compelling product and service proposition to our customers efficiently and effectively. An emphasis for us is to lead in customer experience across our markets, a vital factor in attracting the most profitable customer segments in mature markets.
In 2023, our markets faced higher inflation rates impacting our cost structures, which necessitated continuous improvement and discipline to ensure healthy profitability in our operations.
In this capital-intensive industry that is challenged to continuously keep up with a growing data demand, we have established rigorous processes to deploy our capital efficiently and make sure we generate returns for our shareholders.
Our journey to become a smart telco will persist, with a focus on profitability in our core operations.
In 2024 and beyond, we aim to further optimise costs and strengthen operational efficiency through benchmarking and innovative operational approaches.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulla Bin Mohammed Al Thani
Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer
12 February 2024
Read moreRead less
Highlights 2023
Evolving Ooredoo into a Telecom & Infrastructure Holding
Ooredoo is evolving into a telecom and infrastructure holding with five operating segments that will allow us to crystallise value for our shareholders. This shift enables operational focus, capital efficiency, and targeted investment in telco operations, towers, data centres, sea cables, and fintech, aiming to boost asset returns.
Our strategy focuses on five key strategic pillars:
Value-Focused Portfolio
Value-Focused Portfolio
We are evolving Ooredoo into a telecom and infrastructure holding with five operating segments that will allow us to crystallise value for our shareholders. This new structure provides operational focus through standalone P&Ls, enabling us to capture growth opportunities and enhance operational efficiencies.
Strengthen the Core
Strengthen the Core
Our primary focus is on establishing an efficient and effective telecom operation that optimally utilises deployed capital, maintains an appropriate cost structure, and delivers a robust and competitive service to our customers.
Evolve the Core
Evolve the Core
The evolving landscape of the telecom industry presents opportunities to generate new revenue streams and enhance cost efficiency. In response, we are adapting our capabilities within the telecom business model, exploring new use cases to leverage already deployed capital for revenue generation.
People
People
Succeeding in customer experience requires an engaged and empowered workforce. In this context, we are advancing our ways of working by increasingly adopting agile methods, fostering crossfunctional collaboration, and driving personal ownership of outcomes and respective empowerment.
Excellence in Customer Experience
Excellence in Customer Experience
In increasingly competitive markets, our aim is to create superior customer experiences and inspiring moments for our customers, resulting in heightened levels of loyalty and higher spend with Ooredoo.
All-time high reported Net Profit
Ooredoo is a key techco player in the MENA region, with a balanced portfolio that is exposed to dynamic growth markets with fast-growing GDPs and population.
Ooredoo is the leading communications company in five of our markets and a solid #2 in three others, delivering mobile, fixed, broadband internet and corporate managed services tailored to the needs of consumers and businesses.
As a community-focused company, Ooredoo is guided by its brand promise to ‘Upgrade Your World’, reflecting its agile, future-proof, employee and customer-centric focus.
Middle East
Southeast Asia
North Africa
Qatar
2023 was marked by major milestones in Ooredoo Qatar’s business transformation journey. A highlight was the migration of our cloud ERP landscape from Amsterdam to Qatar, upgrading customer experience and empowering businesses with cutting-edge technology.
Operator importance to Group
5 %
Customers
37 %
EBITDA
31 %
Revenue
24 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Kuwait
Ooredoo Kuwait’s strategy in 2023 centred around value creation and expanding our range of products and services to meet the evolving needs of our customers. Our year-end results underline the achievements made in these areas.
Operator importance to Group
5 %
Customers
10 %
EBITDA
13 %
Revenue
7 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Oman
Despite facing a challenging and highly competitive market in 2023, operating in a relatively small space, Ooredoo Oman continued to innovate. The company achieved success through innovative products and services, and strategic partnerships.
Operator importance to Group
5 %
Customers
12 %
EBITDA
11 %
Revenue
15 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Algeria
Data revenue was a major contributor to our bottom line. A focus on network modernisation improved our ability to offer superior products and services, delivering on our promise to upgrade our customers’ worlds.
Operator importance to Group
23 %
Customers
10 %
EBITDA
11 %
Revenue
18 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Tunisia
Ooredoo Tunisia is moving ahead strongly with the company’s digital transformation and the associated process optimisation to create a best-in-class customer experience across all contact points. 2023 was marked by substantial growth in IoT.
Operator importance to Group
13 %
Customers
6 %
EBITDA
6 %
Revenue
10 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Asiacell Iraq
In 2023, Asiacell reaffirmed its position as Iraq’s leading telco. Our strategic emphasis remained on value generation, as we leveraged our existing resources to upgrade our customers’ experience and explore fresh avenues for market expansion.
Operator importance to Group
31 %
Customers
20 %
EBITDA
19 %
Revenue
17 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Myanmar
2023 was another year of resilience for Ooredoo Myanmar. The company continued to deliver revenue growth by focusing on value optimisation and driving customer-centricity through digital channels, despite continued challenges.
Operator importance to Group
15 %
Customers
3 %
EBITDA
4 %
Revenue
2 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Palestine
Ooredoo Palestine continued its excellent commercial and financial performance in 2023, notwithstanding the challenging operating environment and the painful loss of colleagues. Indeed, we succeeded in surpassing last year’s performance on all major key performance indicators.
Operator importance to Group
2.5 %
Customers
1.6 %
EBITDA
1.7 %
Revenue
1.5 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Maldives
In 2023, our focus remained on customer experience across all service segments. We continued to upgrade our offering and streamline our service platforms, resulting in noteworthy business achievements and outpacing the overall industry growth rate.
Operator importance to Group
0.7 %
Customers
2.9 %
EBITDA
2.1 %
Revenue
4.3 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Qatar
2023 was marked by major milestones in Ooredoo Qatar’s business transformation journey. A highlight was the migration of our cloud ERP landscape from Amsterdam to Qatar, upgrading customer experience and empowering businesses with cutting-edge technology.
Sheikh Ali Bin Jabor Bin Mohammad Al Thani
Chief Executive Officer - Ooredoo Qatar
Customers
(in thousands)
2,991
Operator importance to Group
5 %
Customers
37 %
EBITDA
31 %
Revenue
24 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Kuwait
Ooredoo Kuwait’s strategy in 2023 centred around value creation and expanding our range of products and services to meet the evolving needs of our customers. Our year-end results underline the achievements made in these areas.
Abdulaziz Yacoub Al-Babtain
Chief Executive Officer - Ooredoo Kuwait
Customers
(in thousands)
2,847
Operator importance to Group
5 %
Customers
10 %
EBITDA
13 %
Revenue
7 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Oman
Despite facing a challenging and highly competitive market in 2023, operating in a relatively small space, Ooredoo Oman continued to innovate. The company achieved success through innovative products and services, and strategic partnerships.
Bassam Yousef Al Ibrahim
Chief Executive Officer - Ooredoo Oman
Customers
(in thousands)
3,085
Operator importance to Group
5 %
Customers
12 %
EBITDA
11 %
Revenue
15 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Algeria
Data revenue was a major contributor to our bottom line. A focus on network modernisation improved our ability to offer superior products and services, delivering on our promise to upgrade our customers’ worlds.
Roni Tohme
Chief Executive Officer - Ooredoo Algeria
Customers
(in thousands)
13,371
Operator importance to Group
23 %
Customers
10 %
EBITDA
11 %
Revenue
18 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Tunisia
Ooredoo Tunisia is moving ahead strongly with the company’s digital transformation and the associated process optimisation to create a best-in-class customer experience across all contact points. 2023 was marked by substantial growth in IoT.
Mansoor Rashid Al-Khater
Chief Executive Officer - Ooredoo Tunisia
Customers
(in thousands)
7,260
Operator importance to Group
13 %
Customers
6 %
EBITDA
6 %
Revenue
10 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Asiacell Iraq
In 2023, Asiacell reaffirmed its position as Iraq’s leading telco. Our strategic emphasis remained on value generation, as we leveraged our existing resources to upgrade our customers’ experience and explore fresh avenues for market expansion.
Amer Al Sunna
Chief Executive Officer - Ooredoo Iraq
Customers
(in thousands)
17,694
Operator importance to Group
31 %
Customers
20 %
EBITDA
19 %
Revenue
17 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Myanmar
2023 was another year of resilience for Ooredoo Myanmar. The company continued to deliver revenue growth by focusing on value optimisation and driving customer-centricity through digital channels, despite continued challenges.
Chris Peirce
Acting Chief Executive Officer - Ooredoo Myanmar
Customers
(in thousands)
8,512
Operator importance to Group
15 %
Customers
3 %
EBITDA
4 %
Revenue
2 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Palestine
Ooredoo Palestine continued its excellent commercial and financial performance in 2023, notwithstanding the challenging operating environment and the painful loss of colleagues. Indeed, we succeeded in surpassing last year’s performance on all major key performance indicators.
Dr. Samer Fares
Chief Executive Officer - Ooredoo Palestine
Customers
(in thousands)
1,439
Operator importance to Group
2.5 %
Customers
1.6 %
EBITDA
1.7 %
Revenue
1.5 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Maldives
In 2023, our focus remained on customer experience across all service segments. We continued to upgrade our offering and streamline our service platforms, resulting in noteworthy business achievements and outpacing the overall industry growth rate.
Khalid Hassan M A Al-Hamadi
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director - Ooredoo Maldives
Customers
(in thousands)
392
Operator importance to Group
0.7 %
Customers
2.9 %
EBITDA
2.1 %
Revenue
4.3 %
CAPEX
Financial performance
Environmental, social and governance sustainability
We are vigorously pursuing Environmental, Social and Governance targets to help build a sustainable legacy for all.
Protecting our Environment
Protecting our Environment
- Conserving resources
- Energy and carbon resources
- Waste and water management
Developing our People
Developing our People
- Equal opportunities
- Our workforce Nationalisation
- Female empowerment
- Training and professional development
- Health and safety
Safeguarding our Customers
Safeguarding our Customers
- Customer security and privacy
- Responsible relationships with customers
Creating Ethical Economic Opportunity
Creating Ethical Economic Opportunity
- Corporate governance
- Prevention of anti-competitive practices
- Prevention of corruption and bribery
Digital Opportunities and Community Care
Digital Opportunities and Community Care
- Digital enrichment
- Community care
- Products and services
- Responsible supply chain