Ooredoo Group announced increased Revenue of QAR 7.3 billion in Q1 2020 Net Profit of QAR 387 million

Ooredoo Q.P.S.C. (“Ooredoo”) - Ticker: ORDS today announced its financial results for the quarter ended 31 March 2020.

Financial Highlights:

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• Revenue growth of 1% year-on-year to QAR 7.3 billion supported by robust growth in Indonesia, Tunisia, Myanmar and other markets, which was partially offset by a COVID-19 impact, a reduction in handset sales and macroeconomic weakness in some of our other markets.
• EBITDA declined by 5% year-on-year to QAR 3.0 billion, impacted by measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in many territories as well as challenging market conditions in Algeria, Kuwait and Oman.
• Group Net Profit attributable to Ooredoo shareholders declined by 8% to QAR 387 million in Q1 2020, compared to the same period last year, due to the reduction in EBITDA which was partially offset by a more favorable Foreign Exchange environment compared to the same period last year.
• Data revenues accounts for more than 50% of total Revenue driven by our data leadership and digital transformation initiatives across the countries we operate in.
• Ooredoo Group has healthy cash reserve and liquidity levels to be able to absorb the impact of COVID-19 for the year 2020. As the COVID-19 lockdowns continues, it is expected to result in economic weakness in most of our markets with a corresponding impact on the performance of our operations.

Operational highlights:

• Ooredoo Group has changed its leadership team with the appointment of Sheikh Faisal Bin Thani Al Thani as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ooredoo Group on 5 March 2020.
• Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulla Al Thani was appointed as Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer and Acting Chief Executive Officer of Ooredoo Qatar on 8 March 2020. Sheikh Mohammed has held various management positions within Ooredoo since he joined the company in 2009, and most recently, he was Chief Executive Officer of Ooredoo Kuwait.
• Mr. Fadi Kawar was appointed as Acting Chief Executive Officer of Ooredoo Kuwait on 8 March 2020 and Mr. Bassam Yousef Al Ibrahim was appointed as Deputy General Manager of Ooredoo Algeria on 1 March 2020.

• Ooredoo Qatar deployed Ericsson Spectrum Sharing sites which enable the running of 4G and 5G traffic simultaneously on the same frequency band and radio hardware, facilitating an efficient, flexible and smooth evolution towards nationwide 5G coverage.
• Ooredoo Myanmar upgraded the country’s most advanced 4G network which used the 900 MHz band and reached the vast majority of Myanmar’s population.

COVID-19 Initiatives and Highlights

• Implemented various initiatives to protect the health and wellbeing of employees and customers by adopting a work from home policy for non-frontline staff, enhanced sanitization of premises and mandatory use of PPE including masks.
• Launched several initiatives to support communities during the COVID-19 epidemic. Ooredoo Algeria teamed up with the Red Crescent to distribute hygiene kits and sanitize public spaces; Ooredoo Tunisia launched new nightly data bundles and free mobicash cards while Ooredoo Kuwait offered frontlines workers in the ministries and governmental organizations free internet access. Ooredoo Qatar offered free bandwidth upgrades for educational customers and 100GB of data for frontline workers.
• Transitioned marketing strategy from physical outdoor advertising to target digital advertising; increased adoption of digital channels such as the “My Ooredoo” app and increased home product deliveries.
• Ensured network readiness for increased fixed line and data usage, and increased monitoring to adequately re-distribute network traffic as work transitioned from business areas to residential areas.

Commenting on the results, ­Sheikh Faisal Bin Thani Al Thani, Chairman of Ooredoo, said:

“Ooredoo Group delivered a healthy set of results for the start of the year, reporting a 1% increase in revenues to QAR 7.3 billion in Q1 2020 compared to the same period last year.

The world is going through an unprecedented challenge as we all come together to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. While the telecom sector is defensive and more resilient than others, we do expect to see some negative impact on our operations, similar to other global telecom operators. However, Ooredoo Group has a strong balance sheet, a well-diversified portfolio geographically and a diversified customer mix across prepaid, postpaid and enterprise, all of which will help us navigate these challenging times.

The investments we have made and continue to make in our digital transformation have ensured our business continuity and enabled us to provide essential services and uninterrupted connectivity for our customers during these uncertain times. During the period we upgraded our 4G network in Myanmar to the most advanced level in the country and in our home market of Qatar we took another step towards nationwide 5G coverage by deploying Spectrum Sharing sites which enables the running of 4G and 5G traffic simultaneously on the same frequency.

At Ooredoo our key priorities are clear: the health and safety of our employees and customers, as well as the continued provision of uninterrupted and high-quality services for our consumer and business customers. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we adhere to our vision of “Enriching people’s digital lives” as our networks play a vital role in connecting communities and empowering businesses. Across all our operations, we have optimised network capacity and have managed the flow of data traffic from business centres to residential areas to ensure uninterrupted and high-speed connectivity for all our customers.

For our office employees, we have adopted work from home policies, and for our frontline workers we have implemented strict health and safety measures which are in line with directives received from government and health authorities.  Many of the communities in the territories that we operate in have been severely impacted by the pandemic. Across all our operations, we have launched several initiatives to ease the burden on the groups impacted the most, by offering free data packages, making donations, and contributing to raising awareness of prevention measures. “

Also commenting on the results, Sheikh Saud bin Nasser Al Thani, Group Chief Executive Officer of Ooredoo said:

 “In Q1 2020 Ooredoo Group has increased our revenue and we have delivered good results Growth was driven by strong performances in most of our markets, and in particular in Indonesia and Tunisia where revenues grew 7% and 16% respectively, supported by Indosat Ooredoo’s refreshed strategy and the implementation of Ooredoo Tunisia’s value creation plan. Business in Myanmar has been growing as well. Ooredoo Qatar continues to be our highest revenue generator, reporting QAR 1.8 billion in total revenues for Q1 2020.

The implementation of nationwide lockdowns across many of our geographies impacted EBITDA as margins came under pressure due to changing customer behaviour. EBITDA for Q1 2020 was QAR 3.0 billion compared to QAR 3.2 billion for the same period last year. We continue to implement strong cost optimisation programmes across all our OpCos to manage some of the impact from the pandemic and weakening economic activity.

Our leading digital infrastructure and focus on customer experience enabled us to grow our user base by 6% during the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period last year. Our digital platforms and home deliveries enabled our customers to avail our services and manage their accounts from the safety of their homes. In Oman, we continued to deliver double digit growth in fixed revenues, in Iraq, we increased our customer base, while in Tunisia we maintained our number 1 position by customer market share.”