Bahrain-based Batelco, a global telecom group, recently held its 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2015, where shareholders approved a full year cash dividend of BD41.58 million ($110.29 million).

The dividend works out to a value of 25 fils per share, of which 10 fils per share was already paid during the third quarter of 2015 with the remaining 15 fils to be paid in the coming weeks, a company statement said.

Batelco chairman Shaikh Hamad Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa said: “We are pleased to continue to build and return value to our shareholders as demonstrated by the dividend payment, in spite of facing demanding market conditions across a number of our operations.”

“During 2015 the Group remained resilient and ended the year with net profits of BD49.5 million ($131.3 million) in line with 2014 net profits. At the end of the year, the total subscriber base stood at 9 million across the 14 geographies of the Group.

“Going forward, we are optimistic that our cost containment activities, investment in new and enhanced networks and also our digitisation plans, will boost subscriber numbers and consequently the bottom line,” Shaikh Hamad added.

“For the year ahead, our goal is to play a pivotal role in enabling the integration of the latest technologies in all Batelco Group’s operations to deliver the products, services and solutions relevant for each geography that we operate in. With our strategy we are fit to respond to new trends and technologies with emphasis on the field of digitisation,” he said.

“We remain focussed on our customers at home and overseas to ensure our provisioning exceeds their expectations. Furthermore, we also remain focussed on strengthening our performance to better serve all Batelco Group stakeholders,” Shaikh Hamad concluded. – TradeArabia News Service