Qtel EBITDA up 14.8% on 13.1% sales hike; foreign ops offset domestic decrease

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has posted a 13.1% year-on-year rise in consolidated revenue to QAR6.705 billion (USD1.840 billion) in the second quarter of 2010, up from QAR5.927 billion in Q2 2009, driving group EBITDA up by 14.8% from QAR2.823 billion in the prior year’s second quarter to QAR3.240 billion in 2Q10. Net profit attributable to Qtel shareholders in April-June 2010 was QAR571 million, down by 45.3% from QAR1.044 billion in the same period of 2009, but the 2Q09 bottom line was boosted by one-off items including a reversal of a provision resulting from the positive outcome of a regulatory decision on licence fees in Kuwait. Consolidated customers of the Qtel group reached 66.6 million at 30 June 2010, up 29.6% from 51.4 million twelve months earlier, the lion’s share accounted for by mobile services but also including fixed line and broadband users. Standing out from the results was the performance of Indonesian subsidiary Indosat, which increased its customer base by 34.3% year-on-year to end June 2010 with 38.5 million subscribers. Indosat revenues rose 28.7% y-o-y to QAR3.8 billion in the first half of 2010 (H1 2009: QAR3.0 billion), whilst Qtel’s domestic turnover stood at QAR2.8 billion in the first six months of the year (down from H1 2009’s QAR 2.9 billion), as Qatari EBITDA fell to QAR 1.5 billion in the six-month period (H1 2009: QAR 1.8 billion).