Zain Bahrain reports BD1.4 million net profit
Revenues surge 16.4%, topping BD37 million for H1 2017
- Q2 net profit up 2.3% year on year
- Q2 revenues jump 19% to BD18.7 million year on year
- Strategy of focusing on customer experience supports Zain Bahrain’s impressive position in the market, says Chairman
Zain Bahrain (Ticker: ZAINBH), a leading telecommunications provider in the Kingdom of Bahrain, today announced its financial results, reporting that year on year revenues surged 16.4%, from BD31.8 million (US$84.1 million) to BD37 million (US$97.8 million). The company posted a net profit of BD1.4 million (US$3.7 million) for the six months up to 30 June, 2017, down 22% from BD1.8 million (US$4.7 million) for the same period a year earlier. The company’s EBITDA decreased by 8% during the first half of the year, from BD12.2 million (US$32.4 million) in 2016 to BD11.2 million (US$29.7 million) during the same period this year.
Quarter-on-quarter, the operator posted revenues of BD18.7 million (US$49.4 million) for Q2 2017, a 19% jump compared to the BD15.7 million (US$41.5 million) reported during the same period last year. The quarterly net profit increased by 2.3% to BD948,000 (US$2.5 million) during Q2 2017, compared to BD926,000 (US$2.4 million) in Q2 2016. The EBITDA decreased by 8% from BD6.1 million (US$16.1 million) in Q2 2016 to BD5.6 million (US$14.8 million) in Q2 this year. Despite the reduction in EBITDA, Zain Bahrain continues to maintain a healthy EBITDA margin of almost 30%.
Zain Bahrain Chairman, His Excellency Shaikh Ahmed bin Ali Al Khalifa commented, “Over the past 12 months, Zain Bahrain’s focus was on introducing the most competitive and innovative products to the market, taking advantage of the capacity of our network, which is Bahrain’s most technically advanced. This year we signed new partnerships and solidified old ones, allowing us to offer customers an exciting array of first-to-market products.”
H.E. Shaikh Ahmed continued, “We expect competition to continue to be intense for the remainder of the year, but we are confident our strategy of focusing on customer experience, one of our key differentiators, will support our impressive position in the market.”
Zain Bahrain’s key achievements in Q2 2017
Zain Bahrain was recognized by ResponseTek C.A.R.E. Awards for its outstanding customer experience program, winning first place in the Overall Best in Class Program category. The award was in recognition of the company’s impressive year-on-year improvement in customer engagement across all channels. Zain Bahrain was appraised on several criteria, including how well it listens to its customers; how well its employees are directly connected to and learn from the customer voice; and the engagement levels of employees in acting upon their findings to provide a better customer experience.
During H1 2017, Zain Bahrain officially launched iflix’s world-class Streaming Video on Demand (SVoD) service in the Kingdom following the formation of a joint venture between Zain Group and iflix. With over 170 studio and distributor partnerships worldwide, iflix offers users a vast library of Hollywood, regional Arabic, Turkish and other local TV shows and movies, including many first-run exclusives and award-winning programs.
Excluding financial indicators, Zain was ranked by leading London-based valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance as the second most powerful home-grown brand in the region behind Emirates, the UAE based airliner. The valuation of Zain’s brand for 2017 was calculated at US$2.34 billion, a 9% increase on its 2016 valuation. As part of its overall assessment of brand value, Brand Finance looks at two key factors – the first being revenues (both historic and forecasted), and second being the strength and familiarity of each brand.
Zain Bahrain hosted the 10th MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition’s final award ceremony on behalf of Zain Group this year. The ceremony, held at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), welcomed public figures, investors, media personnel and entrepreneurs from across the globe. This year’s competition was organized in partnership with Community Jameel, a social enterprise organization that promotes positive societal change and economic sustainability, and Tamkeen. The 74 semi-finalists from 11 Arab countries underwent a round of training and presented their work over a three-day period between 25 and 27 April to a jury consisting of some of the Arab world’s key investors and business people.
On the sports front, Zain Racing, Zain Bahrain’s in-house team for racing events, was officially recognized as “Semi-Pro” by the karting world’s premier ranking agency, SODI World Series (SWS) following the team’s impressive third-place finish at the Muscat Speedway 24-hour Endurance Race in Oman. Zain Racing is currently ranked 10th worldwide.
About Zain Bahrain
Zain Bahrain, a telecommunications industry innovator focused on enhancing customer experience, was awarded a mobile telecom license on 22 April, 2003 and commenced commercial operations on 28 December 2003. The operation promptly placed Bahrain on the world telecom map through the introduction of many mobile technology innovations that continue to this day with nationwide high-speed 4G LTE services being offered through the Kingdom’s most advanced mobile network. Zain Bahrain, listed on the Bahrain Bourse (Ticker: ZAINBH), is part of Zain Group, a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East and Africa, which provides mobile voice and data services to over 46 million active customers. With a commercial presence in eight countries, Zain operates in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and South Sudan. In Lebanon, the Group manages ‘touch’ on behalf of the government. In Morocco, Zain has a 15.5% stake in ‘INWI’, through a joint venture. For more information, please email info@bh.zain.com or visit: www.bh.zain.com