Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), the Sultanate’s incumbent telecoms operator, has published its preliminary unaudited results for the year ended 31 December 2016, reporting a 2.1% rise in group revenue to OMR525.3 million (USD1.4 billion) from OMR514.3 million the previous year. EBITDA rose by 5.5% year-on-year to OMR262.6 million, while net profit jumped 140.6% from OMR48.5 million in 2015 to OMR116.7 million the following year. The year-ago figure includes one-off charges of impairment of investment in Pakistani subsidiary Worldcall (WTL) and a Voluntary End of Service (VEoS) programme; excluding these exceptional items, net profit for 2015 would have been OMR115 million.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, in November last year Omantel accepted an offer for its 56.8% stake in WTL from WorldCall Servies and Ferret Consulting. The value of the deal was not disclosed, and the transaction is subject to regulatory approval from authorities in Pakistan.