Qatar’s Ooredoo shares rally after it reports 51 per cent fall in third-quarter profit

Ooredoo’s consolidated third-quarter revenue was 8.35 billion riyals, versus 8.16bn riyals a year ago

Shares in the Qatari telecom operator Ooredoo rallied to close 3 per cent higher yesterday after it reported a 51 per cent fall in third-quarter net profit on Sunday.
Qatar's main stock market index was dragged down 0.2 per cent after the open, as the company's shares initially lost 0.7 per cent before recovering.
Ooredoo made a net profit of 370 million Qatari riyals (Dh373m) in the three months to September 30, it said after the market close on Sunday, compared with a profit of 755.8 million riyals a year ago.
The average forecast of three analysts polled by Reuters was for a quarterly profit of 499.3 million riyals.
It operates in about a dozen territories across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and its earnings have been hit since mid-2013 by foreign exchange losses and plunging earnings in Iraq, although a strong domestic performance has helped mitigate the impact.
After a period of volatile profitability, the company had reported rising profits in the previous four quarters.
Separately, Saudi Arabian telecom operator Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) said yesterday it had extended its agreement with Saudi Telecom Co (STC) to jointly study options for their network of transmitter towers past an October 31 deadline.
"As discussions of this nature can take time to produce results, the parties have agreed to extend the memorandum of understanding [MoU]," Mobily said in yesterday's bourse statement.
"As previously disclosed, the MoU will be automatically extended for consecutive periods of 30 calendar days, unless otherwise agreed between the parties," it said, referring to a July 31 filing announcing the joint study.
Mobily and STC, as well as third operator Zain Saudi Arabia, have been considering whether to offload towers in recent months to cut costs, either through a sale to a private investor or through a merging of their networks.
* Reuters
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