FinancialNews

Home

Investor Relations

Financial News

22-04-10

Batelco reports $64.5m net profit in Q1

(MENAFN) Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco) said that its net profit reached $64.5 million in the first quarter, and gross revenues reached $227.8 million, TradeArabia reported. Batelco's chairman, Shaikh Hamad Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, said that the firm's net revenues rose 4 percent year-on-year across all the firm's operations from data, mobile and fixed services as expected. He said that funding Batelco's start-up operations reduced its net profit by 7 percent to $64.5 million resulting in earnings per share of 44.87 cents. Al Khalifa explained that the firm has invested twice as much in Bahrain during the first quarter of 2010 versus the same period in 2009. It aimed to expand the fixed and mobile infrastructure, and plans to continue to invest significantly throughout 2010. Batelco Group chief executive, Peter Kaliaropoulos, said that the firm managed to expand its customer base to a total of 6.4 million at the end of the quarter, despite increased competitive activities and new companies entering the market in Bahrain and Jordan. He explained that the 35 percent growth in the firm's customer base compared to the corresponding period a year earlier came from hikes in mobile and broadband customers across every market, including over a million customers in India.

Follow us