Dubai telco du sees sharp profit drop in Q3-2021
Dubai: The Dubai-based telco du recorded a net profit of Dh283 million for the third quarter helped by a faster recovery in demand for mobile services, especially in the post-paid category. Revenues for du were up 6.9 per cent to Dh2.87 billion.
The higher numbers from the mobile services would be most welcome, especially as this comes after three consecutive quarterly declines.
From a year ago position, the net profit in the July-September phase has seen a major erosion, by 65.6 per cent. du attributes this to the higher depreciation and amortisation charges that it had to bear.
On the plus side, other revenues gained 16.6 per cent to Dh839 million due to a doubling of handset sales and higher wholesale revenues. A “resurgent” post-paid segment ignited the recovery of mobile revenue to Dh1.30 billion.
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Look at the positives
“I am very pleased that consumer and corporate confidence are on the mend,” said Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO. “Our fixed services business delivered another solid quarter.
“Broadband net-adds accelerated to 52,000 thanks to an attractive service offering. In addition, we see corporate demand for fixed services returning.
“Our commercial initiatives in mobile services are bearing fruits. The refreshed pre-paid mobile tariffs are pushing gross-adds on the prepaid segment towards pre-pandemic levels. Our enhanced post-paid tariff plan is stimulating usage and supports a pathway to ARPU (average revenue per user) growth.
“This quarter is an inflection point for mobile service revenues: we renewed with nominal growth (+0.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter) after three consecutive quarters of decline.”
Source: Gulf News
