Dubai – Mubasher: The net profits of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) retreated to AED 570.411 million during the first half (H1) of 2020, compared to AED 913.278 million in the year-ago period.
During the second quarter (Q2) of 2020, the company's net profits declined to AED 215.294 million from AED 463.815 million in the same quarter of 2019, according to the company's consolidated financial results for the period ended on 30 June 2020.
The company saw revenues of AED 5.656 billion in H1 of 2020, down from AED 6.329 billion in the corresponding period of 2019, attributed to lower mobile sales due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown in the UAE.
At the same time, the company achieved AED 2.32 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) during the first six months of 2020, affected by lower mobile revenues and higher spending to optimise customer offering.
The basic and diluted earnings per share (EPS) stood at AED 0.13 in H1 of 2020, compared to AED 0.20 in the corresponding half of 2019.
Meanwhile, the company's board approved to pay out interim cash dividends of AED 589 million or 0.13 AED per share.
The Chairman of du, Mohamed Hadi Al Hussaini, said: "Despite a challenging environment that adversely impacted our results for the quarter we continued our transformation programme, particularly on the digital front, and we remain committed to continuing investing in our business to sustain long-term value creation."
The company's CEO, Johan Dennelind, commented: "We have launched a cost efficiency programme to ease the pressure on our bottom line, the extent of which will also depend on the speed of the market recovery post lockdown."
It is noteworthy to mention that during the first quarter (Q2) of 2020, the company achieved net profits of AED 355.117 million, down by nearly 20.1% from AED 449.463 million during the same quarter of 2019.
