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Mobily Q2 profit hit by Atheeb deal provision

Riyadh, July 21, 2014

Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), Saudi Arabia's No 2 telecom operator, matched forecasts on Monday despite a 18.6 percent fall in second-quarter net profit caused by a provision against a scrapped network sharing deal with Atheeb Telecom.

Mobily, an affiliate of the UAE's Etisalat, made a second-quarter net profit of 1.31 billion riyals ($349.3 million), down from 1.61 billion riyals in the prior-year period.

Analysts polled by Reuters on average forecast Mobily, which competes with the Gulf's No.1 operator Saudi Telecom Co and Zain Saudi, would make a quarterly profit of 1.33 billion riyals.

In June, Mobily warned its second-quarter profit would be cut by 338.7 million riyals following the dissolution of a network sharing deal with fixed-line operator Atheeb. Mobily in May scrapped plans to buy into Atheeb following months of negotiations.

Mobily's revenue for the three months to June 30 was 5.99 billion riyals, according to Reuters calculations, flat to the same period of last year. Mobily didn't provide a quarterly breakdown in its bourse filing.

For the first half of the year, data revenue contributed 39 percent of the operator's total revenue, up from 27 percent in the same six months of last year.

Mobily's board proposed paying a cash dividend of 1.25 riyals per share for the second quarter, the statement added. This is marginally higher than the 1.2 riyals the firm paid for the corresponding three months of 2013, according to Thomson Reuters data. - Reuters




Tags: Telecom | Saudi | Mobily |

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