JEDDAH: Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), Saudi Arabia’s No.2 telecom operator, beat analysts’ forecasts with an 8.6 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit as revenue from corporate customers increased along with data income.

Mobily, an affiliate of the UAE’s Etisalat, made a fourth-quarter net profit of SR2.04 billion, up from SR1.88 billion in the prior-year period, according to a bourse statement.

Analysts polled by Reuters on average forecast Mobily would make a quarterly profit of SR1.87 billion.

Mobily’s revenue for the three months to Dec. 31 was SR7.2 billion, up from SR6.76 billion from the prior-year period. It proposed a dividend of SR1.25 per share for the fourth quarter.

The firm’s full-year profit for 2013 was SR6.68 billion, up from SR6.02 billion a year earlier.

Annual revenue rose 7 percent to SR25.2 billion.

The company said more income from data and business clients were the reason for the quarterly and annual profit increases. Business sector revenue rose 23 percent.

Data accounted for 28 percent of Mobily’s total revenue in 2013. It did not provide a comparative percentage for the previous year, but said revenue from its mobile and fixed broadband networks increased and forecast data would account for more than 32 percent of total revenue this year.

Mobily said more than 530,000 residential units were now connected to its fiber network and it aims to double this in 2014.

The firm plans to buy a stake in loss-making fixed line operator Etihad Atheeb, a move seen as helping it offer service bundles that include voice, data and television services.