Vodafone Qatar has posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of QR236mn for the six-month period up to September, the company said yesterday.
“This is despite the network outage that took place in July,” the telecom service provider said.
EBITDA margin improved in H1, 2018 to reach 25%, up from 23.7% over the same period last year, representing a 1.3 percentage points (pp) increase year-on-year, aided by a more profitable product mix and a QR18mn reversal of provisions no longer required.
During the first six months of the year, the net profit excluding amortisation stood at QR47.8mn, representing an improvement of 26.4%, driven by assets becoming fully depreciated.
Currently, Vodafone Qatar’s financial year starts on April 1 and ends on March 31.
Recently, Vodafone Qatar announced the company’s financial year-end would now start on January 1 and end on December 31 to “ensure alignment” of the company’s results announcements and other reporting requirements with the local market.
Total revenue and service revenue in H1, 2018 declined to QR945mn and QR899mn respectively due to events arising from the network outage and an aggressive pricing environment.
The net financing position continued to improve to reach QR626mn in Q2, 2018, recording the lowest level in the company’s history.
By the end of September, the total customer number decreased to nearly 1.39mn — 68,000 customers lower compared to the same period last year, due to the impact of the network outage, a slowdown of economic growth and the timing of holidays.
However, postpaid customers grew by 20.8%, led by the popularity of Vodafone’s FLEX plans.
“FLEX is an innovative product which gives customers the freedom and flexibility to use data, make local and international calls and SMS interchangeably on one balance with no pre-fixed quota,” Vodafone Qatar said.
On the results, Vodafone Qatar CEO Ian Gray said, “Despite the setback in July, our recovery and growth plans continue. We also recently announced our new brand positioning ‘The Future is Exciting…. Ready?’ in which we want our customers to truly feel our commitment to Qatar and trust that the Vodafone brand will always be their digital partner delivering great innovation and world class technology.
“Moreover, I am very pleased that a number of changes to our articles of association were approved by shareholders at our extraordinary general assembly meeting held last week. These changes, including change of the Company’s financial year end to December each year, will closer align the Company to other listed companies in Qatar.”