Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, better known as du, on Wednesday announced a 2.4 percent rise in 2018 net profit after royalty fee to AED1.75 billion ($480 million).
Its financial results for 2018 also showed a 3.2 percent increase in revenue to AED13.4 billion - an all-time high - while mobile subscriber numbers dipped by 4.3 percent to 7.9 million.
The results also revealed a 18.3 percent slump in Q4 net profit to AED347 million compared to Q4 2017 while revenue fell 1.5 percent to AED3.4 billion in the same period.
The telco also revealed that the search to find a successor to founding CEO Osman Sultan has now entered the active phase, adding that he is committed to the delivery of the company’s ambitions in 2019.
Mohamed Al Hussaini, chairman of EITC, said: “To support our country’s digital transformation and indeed, that of our own company, in 2018 we continued to invest in ensuring we maintained our best-in-class network, while re-engineering our IT capabilities and the support structures around it.
"Our ability to extract revenue from new streams residing in offering end-to-end solutions to our large enterprise and government customers will add substantial value for our shareholders, while also bolstering EITC’s reputation as the innovative and customer-centric telecom, ICT leader in the UAE.”
He announced plans to propose a total annual dividend of 35 fils per share amounting to AED1.58 billion.
Sultan said: “During 2018 we delivered good results under our strategy to drive more efficiency in our core business, while capturing new areas of growth through ICT.
“During 2018 we invested close to AED1 billion in capital expenditure. We have a healthy balance sheet with a strong capital position, enabling us to make the right investments to grow our business. Looking ahead to the future, we maintain an opportunistic view in terms of our growth strategy.”
