Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has achieved a net profit of SR17 million for Q1, 2016, compared to a loss of SR44 million for the same period last year, with a growth of 54 percent. Thus, the company continues the rising trend of profitability that began with Q4, 2015.

The improvement of the profitability is attributed to the improvement of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), which amounted to SR1.116 billion (representing 32 percent from revenues) compared to SR932 million for the same quarter of last year (representing 25 percent of revenues), which reflects the positive progress of the company’s operational efficiency that managed to control the network operational costs and minimizing expenditures.

Mobily explained that the gross profit for Q1, 2016 amounted to SR 1.924 billion compared to SR1.918 billion for the same quarter in 2015, while revenues for the current quarter reached SR3.44 billion compared to SR3.65 billion for the same quarter of 2015. The company attributed that to the decline of devices sale and slowdown sales affected by customers fingerprint validation and whole consequences of this decision was not fully calculated by the company.

The first quarter of 2016 comes within the implementation of Mobily’s plans and strategies that were carefully prepared by the board of directors and the company executive management despite the challenges witnessed by the telecom sector.

Also, the first quarter witnessed reasonable improvement in many aspects particularly in EBITDA margin.

Mobily claims to have the fundamentals that enable it to continue the upward track; the company especially has a qualified human resources, outstanding brand name, and a solid infrastructure.