VIVA Announces Net Profit of KD 21.6 million, an increase of 14%

Business

VIVA Announces Net Profit of KD 21.6 million, an increase of 14%

VIVA, Kuwait's fastest-growing and most developed telecom operator, today announced its financial results for the first half (H1) of 2015. The company delivered strong performance operational at all business levels with net profit of KD 21.6 million, an increase of 14% compared to the same period last year.

These results are the culmination of VIVAs commitment to providing high quality services to its clients and increasing operational efficiency to create more value and higher revenues to shareholders. In addition these results also reflect the companys contribution to the growth and development of the telecom industry in Kuwait.

H1 2015 operational highlights:
Total revenues reached KD 134 million, a growth of 18 %when compared to KD 113 million in H1-2014.
Operational profit increased by 24%, from KD 20 million in H1-2014, to KD 25 million in H1 2015.
Net profit reached KD 21.6 million, representing an increase of 14% compared to KD 19 million in H1-2014.
Earnings per share increased during H1-2015 to reach 43 fils compared to 38 fils in H1 2014.
The customer base increased by 130 thousand subscribers in H1-2015, reaching a total of 2.54 million subscribers.

Dr. Mahmoud Ahmad Abdul Rahman, VIVAs Chairman, commenting on the financial results: The excellent financial results posted by VIVA represent a major milestone in the company's development, and reflect the many other record breaking achievements VIVA consistently delivered over the course of the year.

Dr. Abdul Rahman reaffirmed: This accomplishment achieved by the hard work and dedication of VIVAs Board of Directors, senior management, and employees to maintain the highest professional standards in the workplace, while serving the best interests of the company and its valued customers. Our strong performance also reflected our efforts and devotion to achieving excellent results in Kuwaits competitive telecom market.

VIVA was able to generate KD 21.6 million in net profit (earnings per share of 43 fils) in H1-2015 compared to KD 19 million (earning per share of 38 fils) in the same period last year. These results reveal the solid performance of the companys revenues and operations through the continued upward trend of financial and operational indicators. This reflected positively on shareholder equity which reached KD 71.5 million during the first half of the 2015 Dr. Abdul Rahman added.

The strong performance of revenues and profitability was yet another great achievement by VIVA. This enabled the company to maintain its leading edge while guaranteeing cash flow and generating positive returns for our shareholders. VIVAs commitment to continuous improvement of customer service quality and profitability will help improve growth opportunities in the long term. It will also enable the company to create more value for our customers and shareholders in the future, Dr. Abdul Rahman concluded.

Eng. Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Badran, VIVA's Chief Executive Officer stated: The positive indicators reflected by the H1-2015 financial results exceeded desired goals, reaffirming the companys effective strategy skilfully implemented throughout its operations while safeguarding shareholder equity and ensuring the highest return for them. Total revenues reached KD 134 million, representing a strong growth of 18% compared to the same period last year.

VIVA was able to accomplish this growth in an extremely competitive telecom market in Kuwait. While competition is an indicator of a healthy telecom industry, it is also an important catalyst for generating new ideas and a constant incentive to offer the highest quality services to our valued customers. VIVA was able to maintain its position as the second largest telecom operator in the Kuwaiti market which positively impacted the companys financial performance, expanded our market share while increasing our customer base to 2.54 million subscribers at the end of June 2015, added Al-Badran.

We continue to build on past successes and look forward to benefiting from the best new technologies to provide our clients with advanced innovative services while achieving further growth and accomplishments. We are proud to be the first leading telecom company to launch the Voice Over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) in partnership with Huawei for the first time in Kuwait and the Middle East. This is in addition to VIVAs commercial presence across Kuwait, which was expanded to 69 branches, enabling us to be closer to our customers and to meet the growing demand for our products and services. Our achievements were also recognized in the second half of the current year as shown by our winning of several awards for excellence in the Kuwaiti telecom sector, including Best Industry Call Center and Best Medium Help Desk from Insights - Middle East Call Center Awards 2015, the only Call Centre dedicated, Professional Services Organization in the Middle East, continued Al-Badran.

VIVAs strong financial performance reflects our customers increasing confidence in our services and the quality of our high-performance network. This growing confidence inspires us to continue our investments in developing and expanding our network capacity through leading edge telecom technology, as we strive to meet the needs and aspirations of our valued customers, concluded Al-Badran.

Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Qatie, VIVAs Chief Financial Officer said: VIVAs performance continued to be steady and strong which enhanced the companys main financial indicators, and increased its customer base. This has positively impacted free cash flow which has reached KD 10 million at the end of the first half of 2015, reflecting a growth of 247, compared to the same period in 2014. We will continue our hard work in implementing our strategy to increase our competitive edge and achieve further growth and success in the next period.