UAE telco du Q4 net profit rises 14.9 pct

Du, the United Arab Emirates’ No.2 telecom operator, reported a 14.9 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday, boosted by a rise in revenue, improvement in gross margin and cost savings.

The company, which ended rival Etisalat’s domestic monopoly in 2007, made a net profit after royalty of 425 million dirhams ($115.7 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, up from 370 million dirhams in the year-earlier period.

SICO Bahrain forecast du would make a quarterly profit of 430.2 million dirhams.

Fourth-quarter revenue was 3.45 billion dirhams, up 0.5 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The company said its board of directors had proposed a total annual dividend payment of 0.35 dirhams per share, up from 0.34 dirhams per share for the previous year. It had already awarded an interim dividend of 0.13 dirhams per share in October.

In January last year, the company announced it had acquired a license to operate Virgin Mobile-branded services in the UAE.