Oman’s second national telecoms operator, Omani-Qatari Telecommunications Company (Nawras), has reported net profit for the third quarter ended 30 September 2010 of OMR12.4 million (USD32 million), an increase of 62.3% year-on-year. Reuters reports that revenue for the three-month period totalled OMR47.7 million, an increase of 13.3% compared to the OMR42 million posted the previous year, while the company’s third-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped almost 30% year-on-year to OMR25.4 million. Nawras said growth was driven by soaring subscriber numbers; the company’s mobile customer base increased 13% year-on-year to 2.01 million, while around 5,000 customers subscribed to Nawras’ fixed line services, which were launched in May and July 2010 for business and residential users, respectively.
The results include a non-recurring provision of OMR1.8 million for one-off payments to staff related to the launch of fixed line services, as well as its initial public offering (IPO). Nawras, which was founded in 2004 by a consortium comprising Qatar incumbent Qtel (which owns a 55% stake in the company), Danish counterpart TDC (15%) and a number of Omani investors (30%), is offering 260 million shares in Oman’s first IPO in two years. The firm plans to set the final share price on 31 October, with a listing expected to take place on 3 November.