By Pratap John/Chief Business Reporter


Driven by an increasing customer base, Vodafone Qatar registered a “distributable profit” of QR89mn even as the service provider earned total revenue of QR1.43bn for nine months up to December 2013, up 31% on the same period in 2012.
The results were announced by Vodafone chairman Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Thani bin Abdullah al-Thani here yesterday.
In terms of distributable profit, Vodafone gained significant ground as it stood at –QR25mn in the same period in 2012. This is the first time the distributable profit has reached the positive territory, according to a company statement.
The continued growth in distributable profits was driven by a growth in EBITDA, the company said.
Vodafone’s customer base swelled to 1.27mn in December 2013, up 27% on December 2012. This shows a gain of 268,000 in one year.
The mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to QR125, which shows a growth of 3.6% year-on-year.
The company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached QR344mn, an 89% jump year-on-year.
The 31% growth in revenue was driven by the post-paid segment, Vodafone Qatar said. The number of post-paid customers continues to rise, Vodafone said.
Vodafone said its capital expenditure stood at QR203mn in December 2013, the bulk of which was utilised in developing the mobile phone segment.
The service provider said it will continue its investment towards strengthening network infrastructure for faster data speeds and achieving integrated billing solution.
“There will be a significant increase in investment planned for Q4,” Vodafone said.
Sheikh Dr Khalid said, “Generating positive distributable profits is a key target of ours and should give shareholders confidence, that the business is moving in the right direction.
“These are a very strong set of results for Vodafone Qatar. The increase in our customer numbers enabled a 31% improvement in revenue year-on-year and with continued focus on cost efficiencies, our EBITDA profits grew by 89%.”