Batelco Chairman, Shaikh Hamad bin Abdulla Al Khalifa announced strong results for Batelco at a Board meeting held at Batelco’s Hamala Headquarters, 24th October. For the first nine months of 2007, Batelco recorded a net profit of BD 78.2 million on a turnover of BD213.2 million.
Batelco’s results at the end of the third quarter of 2007 surpassed all similar previous achievements for revenue and profit. Batelco delivered an increase in net profit of 10.7% for the comparable period last year. Growth in gross revenues was 25.6% over the same period. Operating profit growth resulted from overseas businesses, whilst in Bahrain, year-on-year, zero operating profit growth was recorded.
Operating expenditure and overheads have been diligently managed and earnings per share have risen to 65.2 fils, a 10.7% increase.
“In spite of price reductions for products and services, arising from the highly competitive nature of our markets, regulatory intervention, and migration of customers to new broadband, telephony and mobile services, Batelco continues to maintain its leadership position in the Kingdom while growing in strength across the Middle East,” said Shaikh Hamad.
“The results reflect the disciplined execution of Batelco’s key strategic priorities to drive profitable growth and scale in our operations,” stated Batelco Chief Executive Peter Kaliaropoulos.
“We continue to focus on launching innovative customer offerings, better value for tariffs and improved customer service. We are embracing the benefits of convergence in our industry and remain focused on delivering better mobile, Broadband, IT and communications services. In all the markets Batelco operates today it faces significant competition. It is pleasing to deliver double digit, top and bottom line growth, year-on-year, in highly competitive markets and managing the slowdown in our Bahrain operations.”
A Customer First Strategy
Batelco maintained its scale in the consumer segment with the roll out of new technologies, services, products, very competitive prices and added convenience with regard to purchasing products and services.
“Batelco’s new ‘one number for all consumer services’ – 196 has been a tremendous success. Thousands of customers use the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) service daily for mobile, fixed, internet and billing enquiries and each month around 150,000 customers are dealt with by our professionally trained customer handling agents,” said Mr Kaliaropoulos.
Furthermore, Batelco now operates 18 shops and kiosks in Bahrain. A new look store will open in 2008 at Bahrain’s newest and biggest mall, City Centre, which is currently under construction. Across the region, in Jordan, Kuwait and Yemen, consumers purchase mobile and broadband services through thousands of retail points of sale.
“International roaming agreements with 338 operators world-wide have been established to support our customers in Bahrain whilst abroad. Great offers for Bahrain’s consumers and business customers were announced recently when prices for IDD calls to GCC states were slashed to only 100 fils per minute, reduced from 160 fils peak and 140 fils off-peak,” Mr. Kaliaropoulos added.
Batelco Broadband enjoyed robust demand reflecting the increased enthusiasm from Bahrain’s residents to tap into the vast resources available via the internet and certainly boosted by Batelco’s aggressive Broadband offers. As of September 2007 Batelco had 60,000 broadband connections, with the rate of take up still strong. The business broadband base increased by 23% between September 2006 and September this year.
“We are passionate about transforming Bahrain to be a regional leader for broadband and mobile services and the most attractive destination for businesses to locate their call and data centres in the GCC,” he said.
Batelco’s strategy for Broadband has been recognised internationally with the Company being presented with the Best ISP of the Year award for the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region at the prestigious CommsMEA awards held recently in Dubai. The award recognises the Internet service provider that has driven Internet penetration rates and its own subscriber base by providing excellent connectivity and innovative packages to attract users.
Batelco’s Overseas Growth Continues
Mr. Kaliaropoulos announced that in Jordan, Batelco’s subsidiary Umniah has achieved 1 million subscribers complementing Batelco’s 650 thousand mobile customers in Bahrain.
“This milestone was reached at a time when competition is rapidly increasing in the Jordanian and Bahraini telecom markets,” he said.
“Similarly Sabafon has grown and is the largest GSM mobile operator in Yemen offering national coverage with over 550 base stations across the country. The Company has over 1.6 million mobile subscribers, and with a population of over 22 million there is plenty of scope to see that figure rise,” Mr. Kaliaropoulos said.
Both Sabafon and Umniah are growing and Umniah will also add a new string to its bow with the launch of Wimax based broadband services for the Jordanian market later this year, a move which is expected to attract significant numbers of new customers to the company.
Major Support for Community
Batelco, as a proud employer with a 94% Bahraini staff ratio, has also focused on its social and humanitarian obligations. The Kingdom’s leading telecom company has always supported various needy causes. So far this year, the company has donated almost BD5 million in charitable aid designed to help those who need it most. Among those who benefited during this past quarter were thousands of needy families, as part of the Company’s annual Ramadan programme. During the Holy month, Batelco distributed over 18,000 food baskets to them through Bahrain’s Charity Funds. In addition, Batelco also presented BD450,000 to Al Noor Charity Association and BD25,000 to Bahrain Red Crescent Society.
Besides this, a number of Batelco staff established a special philanthropic committee, Hearts & Minds, earlier this year with the aim of offering their assistance on a volunteer basis to a variety of programmes. To date the volunteers provided six weeks of computer training to under-privileged children, under the theme ‘Hand-on-Hand to improve our Country’s Children’.
The Chief Executive stated that Batelco’s strategic priorities will continue to involve expansion into new markets, on-going focus on customer service and managing costs better based on benchmarking and operational effectiveness.
“By reducing operational costs, introducing more innovation, improving our service and expanding in new markets, we will continue to deliver more benefits to our customers and in turn, our shareholders. Our customers’ support and our employees’ efforts are critical ingredients for long term success.”
“Our predictions for robust growth and cost and revenue synergies for the Group, due to our overseas investments, are beginning to be realised. We plan to continue the expansion drive, through targeted acquisitions of other operators and licences, either directly or with partners.”
In Bahrain, improvements in customer services, launch of new products such as 3.5G, focus on the different requirements of consumers and business customers, ongoing investment in infrastructure and strong cost management, will be our key priorities, in light of increasing regulatory reform and competitive pressures,” concluded Mr. Kaliaropoulos.
