Monday, Jan 23, 2012

--4Q profit rises 13%, beating most analysts expectations

--Subscriber base grows 20% in 2011 compared with year before

--Recommends full year dividend of 40 fils per share

(Adds details from the statement in paragraph 5, 6, 7, and background in paragraph 8.)

By Shereen El Gazzar

Of ZAWYA DOW JONES

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Bahrain Telecommunications Co., or Batelco, the country's biggest telecom operator, posted Monday a 13% rise in fourth quarter net profit, as it added more subscribers.

The telcoms firm made a fourth-quarter net profit of 23.5 million Bahraini dinars ($62.3 million), according to Zawya Dow Jones calculations. It made BHD20.8 million in the corresponding period in 2010, according to Zawya.com.

The quarterly result exceeded the BHD20.4 million effort that analysts at Bahrain-based Sico had penciled as well as the BHD17.6 million predicted by Kuwait's Global Investment House.

Batelco, in an emailed statement, said total subscribers rose 20% in 2011 to reach over 11 million.

Batelco's full year net profit came in at BHD80 million, compared with BHD86.8 million a year ago, the telco said in the statement. Revenues for 2011 stood at BHD327 million, down 4% from BHD340.3 million in the previous year.

Batelco said its board of directors would recommend a full year cash dividend of BHD57.6 million, or 40 fils per share--of which 20 fils per share was already paid during the third quarter of 2011.

"As we go forward in 2012, we will continue to evaluate opportunities to enhance our position in the mobile and broadband markets and achieve greater synergies for the benefit of our customers and shareholders," said Shaikh Mohamed Bin Isa Al Khalifa, Batelco Group's chief executive officer.

In September last year, Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding and Batelco scrapped their joint bid for 25% of Zain Saudi Arabia, estimated to be worth as much as $1.2 billion, after failing to agree terms with the Saudi telco's Kuwaiti parent, a move that underlines the problems associated with cross-border mergers and acquisitions in the Middle East.

The company's shares closed flat at BHD0.394 on the Bahraini bourse Monday.

-By Shereen El Gazzar, Dow Jones Newswires; +971 444 61684; Shereen.elgazzar@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

23-01-12 1402GMT