DUBAI
Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, du, today published its financial results for 2016 and proposed a final dividend of AED0.21 bringing the annual dividend payment to AED0.34 per share. This includes an AED0.13 per share interim dividend paid in October 2016.
Commenting on the results, Ahmad Bin Byat, Chairman of EITC, said, “I am pleased to report another year of steady growth and also extremely proud of how the company has delivered against its strategic objectives in what were, at times, challenging conditions.
“During 2016, we continued to focus on operational efficiency and enhancing the overall customer experience. By embracing new technology and integrating innovation across our entire business, we were able to maximise value for both our customers and shareholders.
“As a result of our financial performance, we have proposed a total annual dividend of AED 0.34 per share, subject to approval at our Annual General Meeting. This incorporates the AED0.13 per share interim dividend paid in October 2016.
“As a company, we remain firmly committed to many of the UAE government’s initiatives aimed at improving the lives of UAE citizens and the development of a digitally-enabled ecosystem. During 2016, we continued to progress and integrate smart initiatives throughout our business, in accordance with the UAE’s Smart Government ambitions and Vision 2021. We are both honoured and excited to be part of the strategy that will facilitate digital integration across the UAE.
“We believe that telecommunication is key to improving the quality of people’s lives. We remain dedicated to developing strategies, products and services that support the evolution of our city into a truly smart city, one that improves the lives of UAE residents for generations to come.”
Osman Sultan, EITC’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our underlying financial and operational performance in 2016 was solid. We added almost a million new mobile customers during the year, while our focus on cost efficiency maintained our EBITDA levels whilst we invested in our transformation to an integrated digital provider.
“While most of our key indicators showed improvement in 2016, a near 10% rise in the amount of royalty paid to the government meant net profit was lower compared with the previous year.
“In today’s fast-changing telecoms environment, we continue to look beyond traditional revenue streams, adapting our business model to explore ways of better leveraging our digital offering in order to create more value. We have continued to invest in our network, allowing us to capture more opportunities from our increasingly data-centric business. The 52% increase in data usage over FY 2015 shows our customer’s appetite for data consumption has increased dramatically as we release more competitive offers into the market. However, the industry-wide issue of monetising data remains a challenge.
“Post-period EITC announced the introduction of its second brand, Virgin Mobile, to strengthen its telecommunications offerings. The announcement made in January, is in line with our vision of becoming a digital transformation partner and an ICT solutions provider, geared towards meeting the growing requirements of the fast-paced and dynamic country in which we operate. In addition, as part of our continuous drive for efficiency, we identified some areas where we believe we could optimise our operations.
“Moving forward, we plan to continue our close cooperation with our strategic partners to develop a full range of smart services and cloud solutions, providing only the best possible assistance to du customers, but also helping drive the UAE’s innovation agenda as well as Dubai’s transformation into the smartest city in the world.”