JEDDAH: Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), the Kingdom's biggest operator, posted a 21.8 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit, the company said Wednesday. Net profit fell to SR2.3 billion ($613.3 million) from SR2.94 billion a year ago, STC said in a bourse statement. Despite the loss, the overall percentage contribution of the firm's international operations had increased due to a larger number of subscribers, the statement said. It added that increased investment to improve the service in foreign operations would yield higher revenues in future. “Profit declined in the fourth quarter because the year- earlier period included an exceptional SR684 million from selling a 30-percent stake in Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd,” Saudi Telecom said in the statement. Operating profit rose 15 percent to SR3.03 billion, according to the company. Full-year earnings per share dropped to SR4.72 from SR5.43 in 2009. Saudi Telecom recommended paying a fourth-quarter dividend of SR0.75 a share. The company had a market value of SR81.6 billion in Riyadh Wednesday before the earnings were announced. The stock lost 3.4 percent last year. Like other Gulf telecom operators, STC, the Arab world's largest telecom company by market value with over 100 million subscribers calculated on a consolidated group basis, has expanded overseas . However, Saudi Arabia's Etihad Etisalat Co. (Mobily) said Sunday its fourth-quarter net profit rose 39 percent to SR1.46 billion ($389.1 million) from a year earlier as it added more customers and boosted data revenue. Mobily, the country's No. 2 telecoms operator, full-year earnings per share totaled SR6.02, up from SR4.31 compared with a year earlier, while fourth-quarter operating profit rose 35 percent to SR1.5 billion, the firm said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse website. Net income for the 12-month period amounted to SR 4.2 billion, a 40 percent rise from the SR 3.01 billion seen in 2009. Mobily– in which Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (Etisalat) holds a 27.4 percent stake – attributed the rise in profit to an increase in the number of subscribers, including post-paid and High Speed Packet Access, or HSPA, users. The firm recently completed last year trials for the coming upgrade of its HSPA+ network testing speeds of 42Mbps and is expanding its domestic market. It said it currently covers 587 cities, towns and governorates in Saudi Arabia. Net debt stood at SR5.86 billion at the end of 2010, Mobily added. In a separate statement, the mobile operator said its board of directors has recommended paying dividends of SR1.4 billion for last year, or SR2 per share.
