By
Telecom Lead Team: Saudi Telecom’s net profit is down by 0.3
percent in the fourth-quarter results. The telecom service provider reported a
net profit of 2.28 billion riyals ($608 million), compared with 2.29 billion
riyals a year earlier.
The
telecom clocked a 19 percent decrease in net income for the 12-month period to
7.7 billion riyals “to foreign currency exchange fluctuation losses
amounting to approximately 1.1 billion riyals”.
The
telecom operator said that its revenues were 15.2 billion riyals in the
quarter, up from 13.4 billion riyals a year earlier.
Saudi
Telecom owns 35 percent of Turkey’s Oger Telecom, and has licences in Bahrain
and Kuwait and a controlling stake in Indonesian firm Axis.
The
telecom service provider saw an outstanding performance in its wireless
broadband services, where revenues more than doubled in the last three months
of the year compared to the same period in 2010. Its fixed broadband customers
grew by 28 percent on the year, according to a Reuters report.
The
board of the company recommended a 0.50 riyal per share dividend, resulting in
a price to earnings ratio of 5.9 percent.
Few
days back,Saudi Telecom Company announced the addition of 200 new locations in five
cities across Saudi Arabia to its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. It
added the 4G coverage with deployment in new locations at Makkah, Madinah,
Abha, Khamis Mushayt and Dhahran.
