Ooredoo, Qatar's leading telecom operator, has reported a 9.7 per cent jump in its first-quarter net profit which rose to QR887 million ($243.62 million) from QR808 million driven by positive FX trends in Indonesia.

The former monopoly, which operates in about 15 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, said it has witnessed a strong customer growth of 6.3 per cent to hit 96.7 million.

Ooredoo has been able to capture a growing share of its markets by offering leading-edge telecoms services delivered across world-leading broadband networks, said the company in its statement.

The earnings per share for the first quarter stood at QR2.77 over last year's QR2.52.

Ooredoo said the group revenue decreased 3.4 per cent from QR8.38 billion in 2013 to 8.1 billion due to the challenging operating environment and depreciation of the Indonesian Rupiah compared to first quarter 2013; partially offset by strong growth in data revenue.

The robust results in Qatar, Oman and Algeria during the quarter helped the company, however the operating environment remained tough with persistent price competition in Iraq, Kuwait and Indonesia.

The ebitda reduced by 8.5 per cent to QR3.37 billion reflecting the current competitive challenges in the markets,
FX impact and the investment in a new network in Myanmar.

Ooredoo subsidiary Wataniya Group completed the divestment of Bravo to STC in January. Bravo operates a
“Push to Talk” technology-based business which is not core to Ooredoo Group’s technology platform strategy

Commenting on the results, chairman Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, said: "Ooredoo has produced satisfactory results for the first quarter. Whilst our markets and our opportunities continue to grow, competition also continues to intensify. However, the trends we are seeing across our markets demonstrate that our investment into delivering the best customer experience is a positive strategy."

"We continue to believe that communication technology can transform people’s lives, and that is what we intend to do across our global footprint as we invest in building mobile broadband networks," he added.

CEO Dr Nasser Marafih said: "Ooredoo’s revenue in the first quarter of 2014 was driven by the increase in mobile and fixed data revenues across our markets. As we continue to invest in our broadband networks, Ooredoo is increasingly becoming a data-centric business which opens up a huge range of opportunity."

"We are starting to see the results of our strategy with the positive performances of markets such as Qatar, Oman, and Algeria where we have invested in deepening and expanding our network capability with positive results," he stated.

"Ooredoo’s ability to offer world-leading broadband products and services in a growing number of its markets drove our customer numbers up by 6.3 per cent to 96.7 million as we capture a growing share of the market," he added.-TradeArabia News Service