Vodafone Qatar’s nine-month EBITDA up 78%

Vodafone Qatar has released its nine-month operational highlights for the April-December 2012 period. Total revenue of QAR1.09 billion (USD299 million) for the nine months to 31 December represented 20% growth over the same period of 2011, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) improved by 78% year-on-year to QAR182 million. Mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) also increased, by 8.4% year-on-year to QAR121. The UK-Qatari joint venture also announced a narrowing of net loss to QAR25 million for the nine months to 31 December 2012, an improvement of 56% compared to the same period a year earlier, whilst for the three-month period October-December 2012 the operator posted a positive net profit of QAR14 million. Steve Walters, Vodafone Qatar’s chief financial officer, added that the third fiscal quarter (which is seasonally strong for the company) also saw a 15% y-o-y rise in revenue and a 56% y-o-y improvement in EBITDA, which helped it achieve the milestone of its first ever quarterly net profit. Vodafone had 1,004,767 Qatari mobile customers at 31 December, an increase of 26% year-on-year.