Du Q2 profit more than doubles at $37.4 mn

DUBAI, UAE: United Arab Emirates telecoms services provider Du's second-quarter net profit more than doubled to beat forecasts on the back of growth in both mobile and fixed line subscribers.

Du said on Tuesday it made a net profit of 137 million dirhams ($37.4 million), after royalty, compared with a profit of 58 million a year ago. Analysts had expected a profit of 106-109.5 million dirhams, a Reuters poll found. In Q1 it had posted a profit of 194 million dirhams ($52.83 million).

Du, partly owned by the ruler of Dubai's investment company Dubai Holding and Abu Dhabi investment vehicle Mubadala Development Co, reported a 30 per cent rise in revenue to 1.7 billion dirhams.

EBITDA grew 87 percent to 454 million dirhams. Fixed-line subscribers grew 52 per cent to 499,900.

The company said it increased its active mobile subscribers by 182,100 in the quarter to a total of almost 4 million.

In June, the company said it raised 1 billion dirhams to fund a growth plan and compete with market leader Etisalat.

Du plans to increase high-tech services such as its broadband offering and 3G for mobile data but has no intention to build its own core infrastructure such as a fibre-optic network, which it shares with rival Etisalat.

Du is set to gain access to Etisalat's network, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat, the Arab world's second-biggest telecoms company, lost its monopoly in the UAE market to Du in 2007, and has been aggressively expanding outside its home market since.