Zain Group posted a net income of US$506.5mn for the first half of this year, a 17 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Zain saw consolidated revenue of US$2.38 billion, reflecting a two per cent increase on the same period in last year. The company's consolidated EBITDA reached US$1.058 billion up six per cent on the first half of 2010, reflecting an EBITDA margin of 44 per cent (up one percentage point) with EBIT of US$758.3mn, a six per cent increase on the same period 2010.
Zain saw strong YoY customer growth with the number of active customers increasing by 16 per cent to 39.6mn as of June 30, 2011.
Zain Group added 5.4mn new active customers over the past 12 months with growth predominantly coming from Saudi Arabia which witnessed 32 per cent growth to serve 9.1mn customers and Sudan saw a 24 per cent growth serving 11mn.
Zain Kuwait increased its customer base by seven per cent reaching 2mn customers. It also recorded an increase of 5.5 per cent in Jordan and 5.2 per cent in Iraq, serving 2.7 million and 12.3 million customers, respectively.
Zain Group CEO Nabeel Bin Salamah said: "The impressive 16 per cent customer growth (5.4mn new customers) over the past 12 months is a reflection and reward of our extensive investments in network technology upgrades and new appealing product offerings across all our country operations."
