Nawras posts revenue growth of 4.4% for 2013

Omani telecoms operator Nawras, which is majority owned by Qatar’s Ooredoo, has announced its preliminary unaudited financial results for full year 2013, reporting a 4.4% increase in revenue to OMR202.0 million (USD523.2 million) from OMR193.5 million in 2012. Turnover for the fourth quarter of 2013 grew 2.7% year-on-year to OMR52.8 million, driven by higher mobile and fixed data revenues, offset partially by declines in SMS turnover. Revenue growth and lower cost of sales drove up EBITDA to OMR27.4 million in Q4 2013 and OMR98.9 million in the twelve-month period, an increase of 4.6% and 4.2% year-on-year, respectively. Despite higher EBITDA, annual net profit dropped 10.5% from OMR37.0 million in 2012 to OMR33.1 million a year later, attributed to higher depreciation due to investment in network modernisation and expansion, with quarterly net profit down 2.9% year-on-year to OMR10.0 million in 3Q13. Nawras said that customers totalled 2.397 million at 31 December 2013, an increase of 9.3% from 2.193 million a year earlier. The fixed service customer base rose by over 45% to 64,287, while mobile subscribers reached 2.33 million, of which 186,917 were post-paid users (up 4.3% in 2013) and 2.146 million pre-paid (up 8.9%).