UAE’s Emirates Telecommunications Company (EITC), marketed under the Du brand, reported a more than 60% jump in net profit for the first quarter of 2024.

The telecom operator’s total net earnings for the period reached AED 603 million ($164 million), a substantial 62.7% growth over the same period last year, the company said in a statement on Monday.

The net profit reflected a strong EBITDA, which went up by 16.2% to AED 1.59 billion, the operator said.

Capex for the year was up by nearly a third (28.2%) to AED 1.2 billion, while total revenues increased by 4.1% to 3,581 million on the back of strong mobile revenues.

The telecom operator said its mobile subscriber base continued to expand, posting a 5.7% year-over-year growth to 8.7 million.

Postpaid customer base also went up by 10.1% to 1.7 million subscribers, while prepaid customer base rose by 4.7% to 7 million.

Total fixed customer base also went up by 11.1% to 616,000 subscribers, driven by demand for home wireless plans and sustained growth of broadband customer base.

(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria) seban.scaria@lseg.com