Du parent company sees revenues recover after pandemic blow

Du parent company sees revenues recover after pandemic blow

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), better known as Du, on Tuesday reported total revenue of AED11.08 billion and a net income of AED1.44 billion for 2020.

The figures were down from AED12.59 billion and AED1.73 billion respectively for the previous year but the company said they showed the "resilience of its model in a difficult operating environment caused by the Covid-19 pandemic".

EITC said its capital expenditure increased by 24.1 percent year-on-year to AED1.87 billion, its highest level over the last five years.

Boards of both companies will discuss plan to seek to attract more overseas investment this week

On the basis of these results, the board recommended to shareholders the approval of a dividend distribution for the year 2020, of 28 fils per share, out of which 13 fils per share were paid in August as an interim dividend.

Q4 revenues increased by 1.9 percent, compared to Q3, to AED2.74 billion, as economic activity continued to recover from the impact of the pandemic, the telco added.

Q4 net income was AED48 million due to a one-off goodwill write-off of AED137 million pertaining to the company's broadcasting business, impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic which led to changing consumer preferences in the way that content is consumed,