DUBAI, July 21 (Reuters) - Viva Kuwait reported a 15 percent fall in second-quarter net profit on Thursday as the telecom operator struggled amid a broad economic slowdown linked to low oil prices.

The Saudi Telecom Co (STC) subsidiary made a net profit of 9.57 million Kuwaiti dinars ($31.65 million) in the three months to June 30, it said in a statement. This compares with a profit of 11.22 million dinars in the year-earlier period.

SICO Bahrain forecast Viva would make a quarterly profit of 10.32 million dinars.

Second-quarter revenue was 69.45 million dinars, up from 67.87 million dinars a year ago.

Viva competes with Ooredoo Kuwait , a unit of Qatar's Ooredoo , and Zain .

STC upped its stake in Viva to 51.8 percent from 26 percent earlier this year, after making a buyout offer to all other shareholders. ($1 = 0.3024 Kuwaiti dinars)

(Reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by Sunil Nair) ((Katie.Paul@thomsonreuters.com;))