DUBAI: Saudi Arabia's Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), which had to cut 27 months of previously reported earnings by nearly $1 billion, swung to a fourth-quarter profit that trimmed its annual, it said on Thursday, citing improved margins.

Mobily’s shares have fallen 74 percent since November 2014 when the mobile operator made the first in a series of earnings restatements after accounting errors.

The debacle led to the departure of several senior managers and board members, with new CEO Ahmad Farroukh vowing last November to return the company to profitability within 12 months.

Mobily, an affiliate of Abu Dhabi-listed Etisalat, made a net profit of SR11 million ($2.93 million) in the three months to Dec. 31. This compares with a loss of SR2.11 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to a bourse statement.

An analyst at Osool & Bakheet Investment Co. forecast that Mobily would post a quarterly profit of SR125.1 million.

Mobily’s fourth-quarter revenue rose 28 percent to SR3.49 billion.

The company, which competes with Saudi Telecom and Zain Saudi, trimmed its 2015 net loss to SR1.09 billion from SR1.58 billion in 2014 as the margin on its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose to 20 percent from 16 percent.

In December Mobily said it had signed an agreement with creditors to waive covenant breaches in relation to debt facilities worth SR12.1 billion. This has helped reduce its net current liabilities by nearly half from a year earlier to SR9.7 billion.

Mobily continues to discuss a similar waiver with other creditors, the operator added on Thursday.