Zain Bahrain posts $2.4m Q1 profit; LTE usage surges

24/04/2016 07:45 AST

Zain Bahrain, a key telecoms provider in the kingdom, posted a BD917,000 ($2.4 million) net profit for the three-month period ending March 31, 2016, as data usage through its state-of-the-art 4G LTE network surged by 121 per cent, the company said.

The 10 per cent decrease in net profit from the BD1 million ($2.7 million) earned during the same quarter last year comes on the back of a 9 per cent fall in revenues to BD16 million ($42.3 million) for the current period, compared to BD17.8 million ($46.6 million) a year earlier, it said.

Meanwhile, the operator continued gaining market share, showing an increase in its customer base versus the previous quarter. The movements in customer growth and data use are largely attributable to Zain Bahrain’s $100 million investment in the kingdom’s most advanced mobile LTE network, with wider and more stable coverage and faster data speeds, it said.

EBITDA changed by 11 per centto BD6.2 million ($16.4 million) for the quarter, compared to BD6.9 million ($18.3 million) in Q1 last year when the EBITDA margin for the first quarter of 2016 had reached 38.7 per cent.

Zain Bahrain chairman Shaikh Ahmed bin Ali Al Khalifa said: “This quarter’s results further reinforce our view that Zain Bahrain’s strategy of focusing on customer experience and providing the most advanced technologies through its state-of-the-art network has started to deliver tangible returns on several of our key indicators. This has resulted in an increase in our customer base to above 807,000 active users by the end of the quarter. Moreover, this increase in our customer base, along with our segmented offers targeting data, has resulted in a 121 per cent jump in data growth over the previous year. Our data services are set to receive yet another major boost with the upcoming deployment of TD LTE technology, the next generation of LTE, which will help us maintain our technology leadership in the market, while having a positive impact on profits as well.”

Shaikh Ahmed continued: “Zain Bahrain remains focused on operational excellence and innovation internally and across the extensive spectrum of our products and services. At the same time, we plan to take full advantage of our ownership of Bahrain’s newest and most modern mobile telecommunications infrastructure, a competitive advantage that has placed us at the beginning of a new cycle of growth that will further enhance shareholder value in the years to come.”

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