By: Amr Adel
Dubai-Mubasher: Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) said Tuesday that the raise of foreign ownership limit on its shares is still subject to the company’s board and principals.
Increasing foreign ownership limit is an important issue for du and should be raised to its shareholders and board rather than the executive management, the telecom operator’s CEO Osman Sultan told Mubasher in a teleconference.
du expects to invest AED 1.8-2 billion in infrastructure development projects in 2016 as compared to AED 1.7 billion in 2015, Sultan said, adding that the new investments will not be affected by current pressures on revenues.
Commenting on the franchise fees imposed on the operator for the post-2016 period, the CEO said no new instructions on the matter have been received from the UAE Ministry of Finance.
In December 2011, the federal government adopted a new mechanism for imposing royalty rates or taxes on telcos to guarantee equality between operators.
The UAE’s finance ministry previously set out a five-year timetable for du's royalty rates for the period from 2012 to 2016, which requires taxes of 15% on revenues and 30% on profits.
He went on to say that the mobile subscribers increased 5.2% to reach 7.7 million by the end of 2015, compared to 7.3 million subscribers a year earlier, although the “My Number, My Identity” campaign suspended the service for almost 1.1 million subscribers.
Translated by: Julian Nabil
