Palestine Telecommunications Company (PalTel) Announces End of Year Financial Results for 2011

RAMALLAH, Palestine, February 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

• 9.4% Growth in Net Revenues to reach US$ 522m
• 14.6% Growth in EBITDA to reach US$ 232m
• 13.7% Growth in Operating Income (EBIT) to reach US$ 179m
• 11.6% Growth in Net Income Before Tax (EBT) to reach US$ 142m
• 5.1% Growth rate in Net Income
• Net Income reached US$ 128m
• Total Assets reached US$ 811m
• Shareholders Equity reached US$ 605m

End of 2011 Year Results

Sabih Masri, Chairman of the Palestine Telecommunications Company, PalTel announced the financial results for year end 2011 at a Board of Directors meeting held earlier this month in Amman, Jordan.  

Consolidated net operating revenues grew by 9.4% to reach US$ 522m at the end of year 2011 compared with US$ 477m at the end of year 2010.  In regards to the operating revenues of each segment, the company achieved a growth in its mobile, fixed Line and data revenues by 9.7%, 4.6%, and 81.4% respectively.

The consolidated operating income for the company reached US$ 179m by the end of year 2011 compared with US$ 158m by the end of year 2010, a growth of 13.7%.  This growth was achieved by an increase in consolidated revenues

and in light of the positive effect of the new operating strategy focusing management efforts on core telecom functions and outsourcing support functions.

The consolidated net income increased by 5.1% to stand at US$ 128m at the end of year 2011 compared with US$ 122m at the end of year 2010.  The increase is operationally driven resulting from a dual strategy of maintaining existing customer loyalty and wining new customers across all segments. The growth in customer base was achieved across all core business including fixed line services.

Sabih Masri, Chairman of PalTel emphasized that, "the Group was able to achieve another impeccable set of operational results despite a difficult year of increased competition, regional turmoil and lingering financial crisis in global markets. The Group was able to wither the storm and achieve growth on all fronts continuing to gain customer confidence and brand recognition for reliable services.  He also added, "The Group is forging ahead with its plans to lay the foundation for state of the art technology services; gaining an edge over its competitors and leading the path in building technology connectivity in Palestine."

Ammar Aker, CEO of Paltel Group stated, "We are proud to end 2011 with such positive results, during which we coped with increased exogenous challenges, and relied on our innate capacities and solid marketing schemes to gain more foothold in market share. We will continue aiming at gaining more market share from the remaining customer base still available for telecom inclusion. "We continue to be challenged by regional and global upsets in the financial markets affecting the general investment climate, despite the fact that our operational results are healthy and upward oriented.

Current Operating Performance

Fixed Line

The number of fixed line subscribers witnessed 6.1% growth rate to stand at 385K subscribers compared with 363K as of the end of FY-2010. This growth resulted from new acquisition campaigns.  

The average monthly revenue per fixed line subscriber reached US$21.1 at the end of year 2011 compared with US$20.2 at the end of FY-2010.

Mobile

Mobile subscribers grew by 7.4 % to stand at 2.42m at the end of year 2011 compared with 2.26m at the end of FY-2010. The composition (split between) of the prepaid and postpaid subscribers was 90% and 10% respectively.

This growth in the number of mobile subscribers was affected by several acquisition campaigns and new products and services that targeted existing and prospective customers.

The blended ARPU declined by 1.8% to reach US$15.1/subscriber/month compared with US$15.4/subscriber/month in year 2010. This decrease in the ARPU is attributable to the larger customer base, low ARPU of the new customers and to offering larger discounts to the customers.

Data

The data segment achieved a 44.5% growth rate in the number of ADSL lines to stand at 156K lines by FY 2011 compared with 108K lines as of the end of FY-2010. This increase in customer base was accompanied by a decline in ARPU which reached US$18.8 in 2011 compared to US$25.8 by year end 2010. In addition, penetration rate of the ADSL lines (per landline) increased from 29.8% at the end of FY-2010 to 40.5% at the end year 2011.

Future Outlook

The Group will continue to grow its customer base in its core services, Mobile, Fixed Line and Data services while meeting the demands of customers who will be able to benefit from the group's edge in investing in state of the art technology.  The Group will continue to serve its customers in Gaza and remote marginalized areas of the West Bank while retaining current customers. The Group will continue to focus its marketing energy on an ever younger market that will promise more operational yields. The Group is increasing its social investments via the Paltel Group Foundation in the year ahead to meet an increasing developmental need in Palestine in the realm of bridging the digital divide towards building more connectivity in the country.

About Paltel

Palestine Telecommunication Company ("PalTel") is an integrated telecom operator offering fixed, mobile, Internet and data services throughout Palestine. Paltel is publicly listed on the Palestinian Stock Exchange (PEX). Paltel owns majority equity ownership in Paltel (fixed line operator), Jawwal (Mobile Operator), Reach (Contact Center), Palmedia (Information and Media Services Provider), Hulul (Business Solutions Provider) and Hadara (ISP Services). Paltel also owns equity in VTel Holdings a Dubai-based multinational telecommunications company with interests in Middle East, Africa and Europe. As of January 31, 2012 Jawwal had 2.4 million mobile customers, Paltel had 385K fixed line customers and 152K ADSL customers. For more information, please visit http://www.paltelgroup.ps

Contact Person 
Ms. Neda Morrar
Director of International Corporate Communications
Paltel Group
Tel: +970-2-294-4006
Mob: +970-599-579-355
neda.morrar@paltelgroup.ps