Vodafone Qatar plans to cut its workforce and write off non-performing assets after the telecommunications company partly owned by Vodafone Group posted a wider loss.
The company is reducing its staff by about 10 per cent and won’t recommend a dividend for the fiscal year, acting chairman Rashid Fahad Al-Naimi said in a statement. He replaced Sheikh Khalid bin Thani al Thani, who left the company “due to his other work commitments”. Vodafone Qatar appointed Ian Gray as chief executive in December.
The loss for the 12 months ended March 31 more than doubled to 465.7 million riyals (Dh469.9m) as customers used mobile data rather than making international voice calls and competition increased. The average estimate of five analysts was for a loss of 348.2m riyals, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A 7 per cent increase of mobile customers wasn’t enough to boost revenue, which slipped 8 per cent to 2.12 billion riyals.
Vodafone Group owns 23 per cent of Vodafone Qatar, while Qatar Foundation, which manages education, healthcare and other businesses, has a 27 per cent stake. The Qatari company hasn’t had a profit since raising $1bn in an initial public offering in 2009. The stock declined 2.6 per cent to 11.20 riyals at 11.08am in Doha, bringing the drop for the past 12 months to 37 per cent.
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