Etisalat Group announced a healthy revenue and profit increase in its Q214 results, attributing the boost to its acquisition of a majority stake in Maroc Telecom.

Consolidated revenue for the quarter amounted to AED12.6 billion (US$3.43 billion), a 27 per cent increase year-on-year. Net profit was AED2.51 billion, also up 27 per cent.

At the end of the second quarter Etisalat counted 182 million subscribers, up 27 per cent on the 143 million at the end of the same period in 2013.

The consolidation of the 53 per cent stake in Maroc Telecom in May was a major contributor to the double-digit subscriber growth, Etisalat said.

Maroc Telecom generated AED3.3 billion in revenue during the second quarter, up 5.6 per cent year-on-year. It ended the period with 38.4 million subscribers.

A share purchase agreement was struck in May for Etisalat to sell Atlantique Telecom – its wholly-owned subsidiary which has operations in Benin, Central African Republic, Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Niger and Togo – to Maroc Telecom.

The US$650 million deal was conditional on the conclusion of Etisalat’s acquisition of the Maroc Telecom stake and is expected to close during the third quarter.

As well as Morocco, Maroc Telecom includes operations in Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

Etisalat also has East African operations, in Tanzania and Sudan, part of an international business that now covers 19 markets.

Revenue from international operations increased 64 per cent, contributing 46 per cent of the total consolidated revenue.

Etisalat secured a 3G licence in Pakistan for US$147.5 million during the period, contributing to an 84 per cent group capex increase during Q2 (to AED3.4 billion).

BlackBerry has named Marty Beard as Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. As the new COO, Beard is responsible for cross functional organisations, including marketing, BlackBerry 10 application development, customer care and quality.

Most recently, Beard was chairman and CEO of LiveOps, a provider of cloud applications for customer service. Prior to joining LiveOps, Beard was president of Sybase 365, a mobile messaging and mobile commerce services unit, and held a series of executive positions including SVP of marketing. Prior to Sybase, Beard worked at Oracle as VP of Oracle Online, its e-Commerce service unit. In his role at Oracle, he was responsible for leveraging the web to improve customer sales and support.

He replaces Kristian Tear, who left last year shortly after John Chen took over as CEO.

Vodafone Egypt’s newly appointed CEO has laid out an ambitious investment strategy for its network, according to Reuters.

Ahmed Essam said the operator will invest approximately EGP9.5 billion (US$1.3 billion) over the next three years on its infrastructure.

The operator will pay for the plan through existing funds, said the CEO, who took up his position this month.

Vodafone is the country’s largest mobile operator with 43 million mobile connections, ahead of rivals Mobinil and Etisalat.

Vodafone Egypt is 45 per cent owned by fixed incumbent Telecom Egypt, which earlier this year was given a green light to acquire a unified licence for EGP2.5 billion.

The licence allows the incumbent to offer mobile services using other operator networks.

In return, the country’s mobile operators have the option to pay EGP100 million to make use of Telecom Egypt’s fixed network.

Vodafone Egypt has not decided whether or not to take up this opportunity, said Essam.

The fixed incumbent has been given a one-year deadline to sell its stake in Vodafone Egypt once the unified licence is activated.

Huawei reported H114 revenues were up 19 per cent year-on-year, to CNY135.8 billion (US$21.9 billion), helped by increased LTE investment worldwide and growing brand awareness for its range of consumer devices.

Huawei stated it also expected to post an operating margin of 18.3 per cent for the first six months.

The Chinese firm did not give a comparable figure for 2013, but operating margin for the whole of last year was 12.2 per cent.

Huawei’s flagship smartphone, the Ascend P7, is now being sold in more than 70 countries and regions. And though Ascend P7 was only launched in May, Huawei claimed recently it had already shipped more than one million of them.

IDC estimated Huawei shipped 13.7 million smartphones in the first three months of this year, making it the world’s third-biggest smartphone vendor.

Ericsson reported stable revenue but a healthy increase in profit as higher-margin mobile broadband capacity projects had a positive impact, along with growth in the Middle East, China and India.

The company reported sales of SEK54.8 billion (US$8.04 billion), down one per cent year-on-year but up 15 per cent on the previous quarter. Net profit was SEK2.58 billion, up 76 per cent from the same quarter in 2013 (and up 57 per cent quarter-on-quarter).

Capacity projects in advanced LTE markets have been particularly beneficial to the company’s financial performance.

Ericsson’s gross margin was 36.4 per cent in the second quarter, compared with 32.4 per cent a year earlier. Lower restructuring charges and increased patent income also played a part in this.

Ericsson president and CEO Hans Vestberg said the investment climate in India is improving, following spectrum auctions held in May. Revenue from India during the second quarter was SEK1.6 billion, up 29 per cent year-on-year.

The Middle East also saw healthy growth, generating SEK4.5 billion in sales, a 13 per cent year-on-year increase.