United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Etisalat group has reported a 1.9% year-on-year rise in net profit for 2016 to AED8.42 billion (USD2.29 billion), while annual revenues rose 2.0% from AED51.32 billion in 2015 to AED52.36 billion last year. Operating profit was up 2.1% at AED11.63 billion. Sales in Etisalat’s domestic market grew 5.5% thanks to an increase in data revenues and stronger business usage. The group said that its subsidiary Maroc Telecom, which has operations in Morocco and nine other African markets, also performed well. Etisalat noted too that it had restated its 2015 results though did not provide details.
The Etisalat group operates in 18 markets across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Its subscriber figures for the end of 2016 have not yet been released.
Its UAE rival Du recently posted a 10% drop in its annual profit for 2016 to AED1.75 billion, attributed to a 10% increase in royalty payments made to the UAE government. Its revenues climbed 3.2%, however, to AED12.73 billion.