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EITC posts Dh570m in H1 net income

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications (EITC) reported on Tuesday a net income of Dh570 million on revenues of Dh5.66 billion for the first half of 2020.
In a statement, the Dubai-based telecom operator said its board of directors approved the distribution to shareholders of an interim dividend of Dh589 million, equivalent to dividend per share of 13 fils.
The company said a contraction in mobile revenues and other revenues in the first half was partially offset by the continued growth in fixed revenues. Mobile revenues declined to Dh2.81 billion as a result of a significant reduction in the prepaid customer base and the prepaid usage. Mobile subscriber base slipped to 6.42 million at the end of the second quarter while fixed revenues continued to grow by 4.8 per cent year-on-year to Dh1.29 billion, reflecting a healthy increase in the subscriber base fuelled by the higher home connectivity needs during the quarter, EITC said.
"To sustain the increase in data traffic across the country and the company's deployment plans, EITC invested Dh509 million, equivalent to 19.1 per cent of revenues, in the second quarter.
Mohamed Hadi Al Hussaini, chairman, EITC, said the group's capex spend for the half year period was up by 75.3 per cent to Dh819 million, equivalent to 14.5 per cent of our half year revenues.
"Our strong balance sheet and solid cash position allowed us to proceed with interim dividends reflecting our continuous commitment to our shareholders," said Al Hussaini.
Johan Dennelind, CEO of EITC, said that going forward, the company expects to see a stabilisation and a gradual pick-up in economic activity in the second half, particularly as movement restrictions are being eased across the country, more and more people are returning to the office and tourists are starting to come back.
"We will continue to see severe impact on our year on year results but we expect to recover on a sequential basis for the rest of the year. As the situation remains fluid, we will continue to adhere to the highest health and safety precautions to protect our employees and customers," said Dennelind.
He said EITC launched a cost-efficiency programme to ease the pressure on the firm's bottom line, the extent of which will also depend on the speed of the market recovery post lockdown. "We launched several initiatives to optimise our cost structure and took immediate actions to reduce certain of our costs including marketing spend, optimisation of current resources and contract renegotiations and we expect to see savings realised in the second half 2020."
issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com