Dubai-based telecoms operator Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (Du) has reported a 12.9% increase in net profit before royalty to AED752 million (USD204.7 million) for the first quarter of 2013, on revenues that rose 10.7% year-on-year from AED2.37 billion to AED2.63 billion. Revenue growth for the first three months of 2013 was mainly driven by an 11.1% increase in mobile sales to AED2.06 billion, with mobile data revenue surging 32.8% year-on-year to AED520 million from AED392 million in Q1 2012, which offset a 1.2% decline in fixed turnover to AED399 million. Du said that EBITDA totalled AED1.05 billion in the first quarter of 2013, an increase of 13.9% from AED925 million in the year-ago quarter, while net profit after federal royalty jumped 40.5% year-on-year to AED468 million in 1Q13.
In the first three months of 2013, Du said it added a total of 182,261 active mobile customers, bringing its total wireless subscriber base to over 6.639 million at 31 March 2013, an increase of 19.9% compared to a year earlier. Of that total, post-paid mobile customers accounted for 8.3%, up from 7.5% in Q1 2012. Fixed line customers, meanwhile, increased by 4.8% year-on-year to reach 571,516 at the end of March 2013, including 145,000 fixed broadband users (an increase of 11.4% year-on-year) and 124,000 TV subscribers (up 5.6%). ‘The quarter saw a solid performance across all areas of the business, with a double digit rise in total revenues on the same period in 2012,’ noted Du’s CEO Osman Sultan, adding: ‘Growth in mobile data revenues reflects the ongoing shift in network traffic from voice to data, a trend we expect to continue, consistent with sector developments worldwide. Our strategic emphasis on market segmentation resulted in an increase in revenues from the post-paid customer segment, as a percentage of total mobile revenues, and we will remain focused on building this high-value customer base through relevant product offerings and an enhanced service experience.’