RIYADH: Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) made just over SR2 billion in net profits in 2008, the company announced yesterday.
In a statement, Mobily said that its net profits for the 2008 fiscal year amounted to SR2.09 billion. That beats by 52 percent the SR1.380 billion in net profits the company raked in during 2007.
Gross revenue during 2008 was SR10.79 billion, an increase of 28 percent compared to 2007.
Mobily attributed the growth to adding more clients and rising demand for mobile broadband services, as well as launching a number of innovative new services and expanding its network coverage.
Mobily said that its operating profits stood at SR2.50 billion in 2008. That compares 30 percent more favorably to the SR1.92 billion in operating profits the company made in 2007.
Profits per share in the 12 months of the fiscal year were SR4, compared to SR2.64 in 2007. Net profits for the fourth quarter of 2008 amounted to SR778 million, compared to SR514 million for the same period of 2007.
Mobily made SR539 million in net profits in the third quarter, an increase of 51 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
Mobily’s board of directors recommended the distribution of SR525 million in profits for the fiscal year ending on Dec. 31, 2008, at 75 halalas per each of the company’s 700 million traded shares. These profits amount to 7.5 percent of each share’s nominal value.