Profit falls at Iraq’s Asiacell as competition intensifies

Asiacell’s quarterly revenue fell by 9.4% to 512.9bn dinars, despite a 4.9% rise in customers


Reuters/Dubai


Asiacell, Iraq’s second-biggest mobile phone network operator by subscribers, posted a 34% drop in first-quarter net profit yesterday, blaming increased competition.
The company, a unit of Qatar’s Ooredoo, made a net profit of 102bn Iraqi dinars ($88mn) in the three months to March 31, down from 155.2bn dinars in the same period last year, it said in a statement. Quarterly revenue fell by 9.4% to 512.9bn dinars, despite a 4.9% rise in Asiacell’s customer base, which stood at 10.8mn subscribers at the end of March.
“Fierce competition continued to dominate the Iraqi mobile telecommunications market during the first quarter of 2014,” Asiacell’s chairman Faruk Rasool said in the statement. “We realise the market is going through a regular phase of high competition that should settle in the short to medium term.”
The company’s margin on its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was 44.9% in the three months, down from 50.1% in the same period last year.