Nawras today reported that revenues for Q113 were up by three per cent year-on-year to OMR 48.2 million (US$125.4 million). The operator attributed the growth to the increases in both fixed and mobile data revenue as well as international voice revenue offset by a decrease in SMS and national voice revenue.

EBITDA for Q113 was OMR23.2 million, down from OMR24.2 million in Q112. Net profit for the quarter was OMR 7.7 million, down 21.4 per cent year-on-year, with the operator explaining that net profit was affected by higher depreciation due to network modernisation.

Total customer numbers grew by12.3 per cent in the quarter to 2.23 million.

The fixed service customer base increased by 57 per cent to 51,532 customers, while the mobile post-paid customer base grew by 5.9 per cent to 182,090 customers. Mobile prepaid customers increased by 12.2 per cent to two million.

Etisalat Group announced today that it has submitted a binding offer to acquire Vivendi’s total stake in Maroc Telecom representing approximately 53 per cent of the capital and voting rights. In January 2013, Etisalat submitted an expression of interest followed by a due diligence of the target’s assets that was completed before making a decision to submit a binding offer.

Market regulations in Morocco will require Etisalat to make a mandatory tender offer to the minority shareholders, and consequently Etisalat may end up acquiring more than the 53 per cent stake offered by Vivendi.

Maroc Telecom is a publicly listed company on both Casablanca and Euronext – Paris stock exchanges. It is the leading telecom operator in the country having controlling stakes in four other telecom operators in West Africa. Etisalat firmly believes that Maroc Telecom fits within its international expansion strategy and would complement its existing West African portfolio.

Ericsson announced that its first-quarter revenues rose by two per cent to SEK52 billion (US$7.9 billion), but that net profits plunged by 86 per cent year-on-year to SEK1.2 billion.

Last year’s divestment of Sony Ericsson had resulted in a one-off gain of SEK 7.7 billion in the previous results. Excluding that, net profits would have risen year-on-year by SEK100 million.

The company narrowly missed most analyst expectations for both revenue and profit figures.

The sales increase was primarily driven by Networks and rollout services, following high project activities primarily in Europe and North America. North America remained the strongest region and showed a growth of 23 per cent despite the decline in CDMA.

North East Asia had a challenging quarter with lower sales in South Korea, which remains one of the most advanced LTE markets.

Apple reported its second-fiscal quarter financial results to end-March, and announced that revenues reached US$43.6 billion compared to US$39.2 billion a year ago.

However, net profit fell to US$9.5 billion compared to US$11.6 billion a year earlier.

Gross margin was 37.5 per cent compared to 47.4 per cent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.

The company sold 37.4 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 19.5 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 11.8 million in the year-ago quarter, and just under four million Macs, compared to four million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple also announced a significant increase to its programme to return capital to shareholders. The company expects to utilise a total of US$100 billion of cash under the expanded program by the end of calendar 2015. This represents a US$55 billion increase to the program announced last year and translates to an average rate of US$30 billion per year from the time of the first dividend payment in August 2012 through December 2015.

Wataniya Telecom, which is 92 per cent owned by Ooredoo, reported quarterly profits of KWD19.5 million (US$68.7 million) for Q113, down 31 per cent from KWD 28.3 million a year ago.

The company ended the quarter with 19.4 million customers, as compared to 18.1 million a year ago.

Wataniya explained that the fall in profits was a result of higher competition in Kuwait, a weak economy in Tunisia and foreign exchange fluctuations in Algeria.

The cellco has subsidiaries in Algeria, Kuwait, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, The Palestinian Territories, and Tunisia.