Telecom Egypt has announced a second-quarter profit rise of 23 per cent, beating estimates from analysts. Net income reached US$170.7mn from US$138mn a year before, the Cairo-based company said in a recent statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service.
"We continue to capture growth in mobile and data markets," said CEO, Tarek Tantawy, in the statement. ?Heightened activity from third party operators has resulted in strong wholesale revenue growth, growing eight per cent on the previous quarter. For the half year 2010, in the context of continued intense competition, recording US$914mn in total revenues is quite an achievement.
?Telecom Egypt's promotional activities, when viewed sequentially, total retail revenues for Q2 2010 showed an improvement of nine per cent on Q1 2010. This strong performance in Q2 2010 on the retail and wholesale side of our service offering has resulted in revenue growth of eight per cent in Q2 2010 versus Q1 2010.
?Net profit margins continue to expand over the period, as a result of cost control initiatives combined with our long-standing investment in Vodafone Egypt (VFE). Consolidated net profit grew 12 per cent from H1 2009 to H1 2010. The mobile segment continues to represent a significant opportunity. In a highly dynamic market, our VFE investment contributed attributable income for the period of US$128mn.
?While we have increased capital expenditure year-on-year to comprise 10 per cent of total revenues so as to enable further investment in TE's infrastructure, we maintained a positive net cash position.?
