UAE's du profits rise 54% in first half

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) net profits rose by 54.2 percent during the first half of this year to AED 1.184 billion, compared to AED 768 million during the same period last year.

The company's revenues grew by about 5.7 percent during the first half of this year to AED 7.174 billion during the first half of this year, compared to AED 6.787 billion during the same period last year.

In a statement on Monday, du announced that the results of the second quarter of this year included a 3.2 percent increase in its profits before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to reach AED 1.6 billion, thanks to revenue growth, while the company’s net profits reached AED 581 million, an increase of 46.3 percent during the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year. It recorded a 7.3 percent increase in revenues to reach AED 3.6 billion during the second quarter.

The mobile subscriber base grew by 2.9 percent year-on-year to reach 8.2 million subscribers, while the fixed-line customer base grew by 12.7 percent year-on-year to reach 630,000 subscribers, with 15,000 net new subscribers added during the second quarter.

Mobile revenues grew by 6.6 percent year-on-year, while fixed-line revenues grew by 3.5 percent.

Malek Sultan Al Malek, Chairman of EITC, said that the first half of 2024 witnessed continued record results across various indicators, while continuing to focus on implementing the business strategy.

He added that the company's board of directors approved the distribution of interim cash dividends for the first half of the current year at 20 fils per share, which represents an increase of 53.8 percent compared to the interim dividends distributed for the first half of last year.

For his part, Fahad Al-Hasawi, CEO of the company, said that the company succeeded in attracting more subscribers to its services, in addition to achieving remarkable growth in revenues, profitability and cash flows, which strengthened the launch with which it began this year.

He added that in the field of financial technology, demand for digital financial services provided by the du Pay platform exceeded expectations in the first full quarter since the announcement of its launch in the market.