UAE telecoms operator Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) has announced its group financial results for the three months ended 31 March 2011, reporting revenues of AED8.04 billion (USD2.2 billion), an increase of 2.1% compared to turnover of AED7.87 billion posted in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, the company’s net profit fell 8.9% from AED1.99 billion in Q1 2010 to AED1.82 billion a year later, as operating expenses rose 11.3% year-on-year. Capital expenditure totalled AED1.11 billion during the first three months of 2011, down from AED1.54 billion in the same period a year earlier. In a statement on the Abu Dhabi bourse, Etisalat said it had 7.43 million mobile subscribers, 1.13 million fixed line customers and 490,000 internet subscribers in its domestic market at 31 March 2011. At the same date, the company reported 220,000 multi-play customers using its ‘e-Life’ fibre-optic network.
Commenting on the results, Etisalat’s chairman Mohammed Omran stated: ‘The financial results recorded during the first quarter of 2011 indicate the Corporation’s continuous achievements in revenue growth, reflecting our strategy to become one of the largest telecommunications corporations globally, in addition to being the biggest telco organisation in the Arab world’. He added that the financial results achieved by international investments have started to constitute a significant source of income for the firm, and are gradually offsetting the decline in revenues in the local market due to high saturation and increased competition.