Qatar Telecom Q.S.C. (“Qtel” or “The Qtel Group” or “The Group”) (Ticker: QTEL.QA) today announced continued strong revenue and profit momentum during the first quarter ended 31 March 2011, fuelled by the ongoing good performance of its international operational portfolio.
Please check the below Financial Highlights table.
• Earnings per share in Q1 2011 stood at QAR 4.33 (Q1 2010: QAR 6.89). Earnings per share have been adjusted as a result of the issuance of 20% bonus shares in Q1 2011
Operational Highlights:
• Year-on-year net profit attributable to Qtel Shareholders growth of 15.7 percent when normalized for the 2010 Qatar royalty adjustment
• Strong Group performance in Revenue and EBITDA
• Acquisition of an additional shareholding in Tunisiana resulting in 100 percent consolidation in Group results
• Successful public listing of Wataniya Mobile Palestine
In the first quarter ended 31 March 2011, the Group continued to make positive progress, benefiting from its diverse and complementary portfolio of operations and remaining focused on delivering best-of-breed services, particularly in those regions where market dynamics remain competitive. This focus enabled the Group to deliver further revenue and profit momentum in the first quarter, with Group revenue increasing by 16.5 percent to end the period at QAR 7.5 billion (Q1 2010: QAR 6.4 billion).
As of March 31, 2011 the Group’s consolidated customer base stood at 75.6 million (Q1 2010: 66.4 million), representing growth in customer numbers of 13.9 percent. The Group’s EBITDA for the same period increased 17 percent to QAR 3.6 billion (Q1 2010: QAR 3.0 billion). EBITDA margin remained robust throughout the period at 48 percent (Q1 2010: 47 percent).
Net profit attributable to Qtel Shareholders increased by 15.7 percent when normalized for a one-off favourable decision on the royalty regime in Qatar in 2010 of QAR 554 million. Q1 2011 Net profit attributable to Qtel Shareholders stood at QAR 0.8 billion
(Q1 2010: 1.2 billion).
Commenting on the results, His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, Chairman of the Qtel Group said:
“We are pleased with the operational performance of the group with normalized Net Profit Attributable to Qtel shareholders increasing 15.7 percent year on year. We have started this new year with the same energy and commitment with which we ended the last. The broad-based strengths of our international group remain evident and it is these strengths that have helped us to deliver a further quarter of strong growth in the first three months of 2011.”
At a Group level, Qtel invested in assets and innovations designed to maintain market leadership, with one of these ways being through new strategic partnerships. During the quarter, the Qtel Group announced new partnership agreements paving the way for new innovations in social media, consumer broadband and entertainment.
Also commenting on the results, Dr. Nasser Marafih, Chief Executive Officer of the Qtel Group said:
“Thanks to our ability to move quickly when attractive opportunities arise, we are well positioned to capture the high growth offered by emerging economies. With an emphasis on efficiencies, our mature markets have delivered good returns; our operations in competitive markets continue to efficiently manage the increasing competition; and our emerging markets remain rich in opportunity, both for customer growth and service innovation. We are enhancing our capabilities in a number of key service areas for the future, including digital services and social media, to ensure that we continue to meet the requirements of our valued customers today and in the future.”
Review of Operations
The Group’s operational performance can be summarized as follows:
Qtel – Qatar
In Qatar, Qtel produced a successful quarter driven by robust results in the consumer sector and a number of key agreements with significant corporate clients. The enhanced strategic focus on the mobile broadband and entertainment segments are also opening new market opportunities and delivering positive returns.
Qtel’s ongoing programme of investment in Qatar’s communications infrastructure saw a number of important milestones in the first quarter of 2011. The major upgrade and expansion process for the Qtel Data Centre, which began at the start of 2010, was completed, increasing capacity by 300 percent, with an enhanced range of enterprise services. A number of leading Qatari organisations signed agreements to migrate their core systems to the Qtel Data Centre as a result of this expansion programme. In addition, the trial phase of the Fibre-to-the-Home programme was a success, and more than 510 kilometres of fibre had been laid-out in residential areas by March 2011, positioning the company for the commercial launch.
The company’s ongoing investment in enhanced systems and processes, as well as prioritising customer satisfaction, enabled Qtel to maintain its customer base to end the quarter with 2.4 million customers (Q1 2010: 2.4 million). Revenue increased by 4.6 percent year-on-year to stand at QAR 1.4 billion (Q1 2010: QAR 1.4 billion). EBITDA performance during the quarter showed an increase of 8.9 percent year-on-year to QAR 776.2 million (Q1 2010: QAR 712.8 million).
