KUWAIT, 19 February 2007 — Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co. (MTC), the fourth-largest Arab telecom firm by market value, missed its own forecast for fourth-quarter profit and those of most analysts.
Net profit in the three months to Dec. 31 rose 65.8 percent to 82.12 million dinars ($284.1 million), Reuters calculated from full-year data MTC released.
Full-year profits rose 64 percent to 305.3 million dinars, the statement said.
MTC Chief Executive Saad Al-Barrak said in October he expected the company’s 2006 profit to be five times as much as the 75.04 million dinars it made in 2002.
“The company made a lot of noise about its fourth-quarter profits,” said Marc Hammoud, senior telecom analyst at Dubai-based investment bank Shuaa Capital.
“Analysts tended to be very bullish on the results because of those comments,” Hammoud said.
Analysts polled by Reuters in December forecast profits growth in a range of 47.9 percent to 104.1 percent. The average forecast was 77.3 percent.
Barrak’s remarks triggered a rally in MTC’s stock that drove it to record highs and made it Kuwait’s largest company.
Company officials, including Chairman Assad Al-Banwan, could not immediately say why MTC missed Barrak’s forecast.
