DUBAI - Emirates Telecommunications Group (Etisalat) on Thursday reported a 4.2 percent drop in third-quarter net profit, hit by increased capital expenditure.

Etisalat made a net profit of 2.3 billion dirhams ($626 million) in the three months to Sept. 30, it said in a bourse filing. That compared with 2.4 billion dirhams in the same period last year.

SICO Bahrain had forecast that Etisalat would make a quarterly net profit of 2.1 billion dirhams.

Etisalat, which operates in 16 countries, achieved revenue of 13.2 billion dirhams in the quarter, against 12.9 billion dirhams in the corresponding period last year.

Consolidated capital spending rose 6 percent to 8.5 billion dirhams.

Etisalat subscriber numbers were up 3.2 percent year on year at 144 million but unchanged from the second quarter. ($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell Editing by David Goodman)

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