Dubai-based telecoms operator Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (Du) has posted a 19.5% year-on-year rise in net profit before royalty to AED778 million (USD211.8 million) for the second quarter of 2013, on revenues that rose 12.1% year-on-year from AED2.37 billion to AED2.66 billion. Revenue growth for the three months ended 30 June 2013 was mainly driven by an 13.3% increase in mobile sales to AED2.07 billion, with mobile data revenue climbing 44.8% to AED573 million from AED396 million in Q2 2012. Fixed line revenue grew 2.7% year-on-year to reach AED405 million. Du said that EBITDA totalled AED1.09 billion in Q2 2013, an increase of 16.2% from AED941 million in the year-ago quarter, while net profit after federal royalty jumped 45.6% year-on-year to AED474 million in 1Q13.
Du added 14,356 new active mobile customers in Q2 2013, increasing its total wireless subscriber base to over 6.653 million, an increase of 16.1% compared to a year earlier. Of that total, post-paid mobile customers accounted for 8.9%, up from 7.8% at 30 June 2012. Fixed line customers, meanwhile, increased by 5.7% year-on-year to reach 578,026 at mid-2013, including 148,000 fixed broadband users (an increase of 11.9% year-on-year) and 126,000 TV subscribers (up 7.0%). Commenting on the results, Du’s CEO Osman Sultan said: ‘Thanks to further progress made during the first half of this year in our key areas of strategic focus – market leading products and services and driving cost efficiencies through our business – we have achieved good growth in revenues and profits and our margins remain strong.’