Ooredoo makes steady progress in Q4 and FY 2012

Qatar Telecom reported a 14.6 per cent rise in fourth-quarter profit as higher revenue in its home market, Indonesia and Iraq offset declining earnings from Kuwaiti unit Wataniya and Oman’s Nawras.

Qtel, which recently renamed itself Ooredoo, made a net profit of QAR523 million (US$143.7 million) in the three months to end-December, up from QAR456 million in the year-earlier period.

Ooredoo, which operates in 16 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, said it would pay a cash dividend of QAR5 per share.

Full-year domestic revenue rose nine per cent to exceed QAR6 billion, while revenue from Indonesia unit Indosat increased three per cent to QAR8.8 billion.

Full-year group revenue reached QAR33.7 billion, up 6.2 per cent year-on-year.

Ooredoo has spent approximately US$3.9 billion in the past 12 months upping its stakes in some foreign units, taking majority control of Iraq’s Asiacell, while it now owns 90 per cent or more of Kuwait’s Wataniya, through which it holds controlling stakes in operators in Tunisia and Algeria.

Asiacell’s full-year revenue rose 15.9 per cent to QAR6.9 billion from a year earlier.

Wataniya, Kuwait’s No.2 operator reported a 26.5 per cent drop in fourth-quarter profit last month that it blamed on tougher competition at home and foreign exchange losses in Tunisia and Algeria.

In January, Omani subsidiary Nawras posted a fourth straight decline in quarterly profit as falling revenue from texts and on-network calls weighed on its bottom line.

Ooredoo made an annual net profit of QAR2.94 billion in 2012, up from QAR2.61 billion in 2011.

Fourth-quarter revenue was QAR8.71 billion, up from 8.19 billion a year earlier.