Mobinil’s 2009 net profit rises 3% to US$371.5 mn

Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil recorded a fourth quarter net profit of EGP 581 million (US$106 million), a growth of 5.4 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier. Revenues reached EGP 2.8 billion with EBITDA of EGP 1.32 billion.

Annual net profit for 2009 increased three per cent year-on-year to EGP 2.04 billion (US$371.5 million), while revenues grew eight per cent to EGP 10.81 billion. Full-year EBITDA reached EGP 5.122 million, an increase of nine per cent over 2008.

Subscriber numbers increased to 25.354 million by the end of December 2009, an addition of 5.24 million subscribers or growth of 26 per cent from a year earlier.

"The year 2009 was filled with intense challenges and adverse conditions driven by the global economic
crisis and aggressive competition," Mobinil Chairman Alex Shalaby said in the earnings statement. “I am really delighted to see the level of growth achieved given the tough conditions we operated under during the year.

The operator has been engaged in an ownership dispute between its two main shareholders, Egypt’s Orascom Telecom and France Telecom (FT). A detailed ruling is expected within the coming week, after an administrative court previously blocked the regulator’s decision for FT to purchase outstanding shares in the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (ECMS), which operates under the Mobinil brand name.