RIYADH: Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) posted a 40 percent quarter-to-quarter growth in net income, the company said in a statement released Monday night. “We are very happy with the results. Driving this success are our people. We have a good company and good people committed to our GED, growth, efficiency and differentiation strategy,” said David Murphy, Mobily's Chief Marketing Officer. “Our GED strategy has already started to deliver results,” he added. Mobily's net income for the first quarter of 2011 grew by 40 perecent compared with the 2010 results for the same quarter from SR714 million to SR998 million. Driving that growth, said Murphy, was an increase of core voice business, data and B2B product sales. Additionally significant drivers are increased smart phone and table PC usage, which contributed to 20 percent of the Mobily's total revenue of SR4.48 billion for the quarter, up from 14 percent on 2010 first quarter revenues of SR 3.58 billion. “We have just launched our new 42Mbps network and will launch our LTE network this year in line with our GED strategy,” Murphy said. Mobily's EBITDA margin increased two points from 33 percent for the first quarter of last year, representing SR 1.18 billion to 35 percent for this quarter amounting to SR 1.58 billion. Similarly, earnings per share for the quarter stood at SR 1.43 as compared to EPS of SR 1.08 for the first quarter of 2010.
