Omantel rings up 9.2 per cent

Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), the Sultanate's biggest telecommunications service provider, said its net profit for the first nine months of 2012 soared 9.2 per cent to RO90 million, mainly supported by a strong performance of the domestic operations. The company's revenue moved up by 2.9 per cent to RO342.9 million from RO333.2 million for the corresponding period of 2011. The increase in Omantel revenue is mainly attributed to the impressive growth in mobile broadband subscribers by 67 per cent, which contributed to an increase in the domestic retail mobile revenue by 5.4 per cent year-on-year. On a group level, both revenues streams, retail as well as wholesale, have recorded a growth of 1.7 per cent and 8.5 per cent, respectively. The increase in wholesale revenue is mainly contributed by increase in revenues from external administration and capacity sales. Omantel subscriber base witnessed a notable growth both in the domestic and group levels. The company witnessed an increase in the total group customer base (including Worldcall subscribers) by 9.8 per cent to 3.774 million as of September 30, 2012 compared to 3.437 million for the same period of 2011. The subscriber base includes WTL subscribers, which has grown by 2.9 per cent and has now reached 939,000. The total domestic subscriber base (including mobile and fixed businesses) has reached 2.835 million (excluding mobile resellers) as of September, 2012 recording a growth rate of 12.3 per cent over the last year. The total operating expenses increased slightly by 1.3 per cent to RO247.2 million compared to RO244 million for the corresponding period of 2011. This increase in operating expenses is attributed to increase in employee cost, external administration (international calls), marketing, distribution fees and interconnection costs. However, depreciation of plant, property and equipment and amortisation of intangibles have declined by RO5.9 million compared to the same period of 2011. Domestic operations Domestic operations profitability continues to be robust and recorded an increase of 12 per cent compared to the corresponding period. Loss incurred by Worldcall has slightly impacted the overall group profitability growth. Commenting on this inspiring consistent performance, Dr Amer Awadh Al Rawas, chief executive of Omantel, said; "Our company has continued to make outstanding growth despite many challenging conditions and increased competition in the domestic market." "Our increased thrust on providing enhanced network coverage across Sultanate, improved customer experience have resulted in a strong performance of our domestic operations leading to a significant growth in our customer-base especially mobile and fixed broadband customers which have grown by 67 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively. Furthermore, Omantel Mobile continued to lead the market with a notable growth in the Company's individual and mobile network market share," added Dr Amer. Omantel continued implementing its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme and partnered with Ministry of Higher Education and Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry to provide scholarships for five Omani secondary school graduates to pursue their university higher education. Omantel has as well supported SANAD programme to help create more self-employment opportunities for young Omanis. During the last quarter, Omantel was the winner of three international awards in recognition of the outstanding performance of the company. Omantel has been selected to be the winner of Best Employer Brand among all Asian companies in a prestigious event held last July in Singapore. Moreover, the company was the winner of the Golden Trophy for our Muscat Festival 2012 Best Campaign awarded by Summit International Awards in the United States and also the winner of the Gold Award for the Best Annual Book in the Academy Awards for Annual Reports. "I would like to thank our loyal customers, visionary board, committed employees and supportive shareholders who have always been part and in support of Omantel's journey to excellence," Al Rawas concluded.