Zain Saudi Arabia narrows quarterly loss by 25% to US$84 million

Zain Saudi Arabia announced improving financial results for the third quarter of 2014, recording a 21 per cent increase in EBITDA during the first nine months of 2014, reaching SAR825 million (US$220 million). The company also succeeded in raising its EBITDA margin to 18 per cent, up from 14 per cent during the same period of last year.

The company narrowed its net losses during the third quarter by 25 per cent to SAR316 million, reflecting a 19 per cent improvement in net loss during the nine months. Gross margin increased to reach 52 per cent in the nine-month period, up from 47 per cent a year earlier.

Mobile broadband service customers increase by 145 per cent in in the first nine months as data traffic in the Internet segment continues to increase significantly, growing 541 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2014, and by 673 per cent increase quarter-on-quarter.