Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), the Sultanate’s incumbent telecoms operator, has announced its preliminary unaudited financial results for the second quarter of 2020, reporting group revenue of OMR591.0 million (USD1.5 billion), a decrease of 6% from OMR630.2 million a year earlier. Group EBITDA declined by 9% year-on-year to OMR245.9 million in Q2 2020, while net profit dropped 42% from OMR66 million in 2Q19 to OMR38 million a year later. Omantel said it results were affected by challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and an overall reduction in economic activity in the country on account of lower oil prices, but said that proactive cost optimisation measures taken by the management have minimised the overall impact by achieving a 6% reduction in operating and administrative expenses year-on-year.
Revenue from domestic operations grew 4% year-on-year to OMR134.8 million, thanks to an increase in wholesale international business and device revenues, although domestic profit declined 27% year-on-year to OMR14.7 million.