Zain reports 15% drop in Q3 profit

DUBAI: Kuwaiti telecom operator Zain missed expectations with a 15 percent fall in quarterly profit, hit by a foreign exchange loss. The former monopoly, which operates in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa, also said on Sunday chief executive Nabeel bin Salama would not renew his contract when it expires in February. Zain made a third-quarter net profit of 59.7 million Kuwaiti dinars ($213 million), compared with a forecast for 63.7 million in a Reuters poll. Revenue fell 5.4 percent to 311 million dinars."During this (nine-month) period Zain Group operations came under significant pressure with respect to extreme currency fluctuations in some of the markets in which we operate," chairman Assad Al-Banwan said. That cost Zain the equivalent of $146 million, he said.
In Kuwait, Zain competes with Wataniya, a unit of Qatar Telecom (Qtel), and Viva, an affiliate of Saudi Telecom Co., while its Iraq and Sudan units accounted for 62 percent of subscribers and 58 percent of revenue, according to its first-quarter results.