International telecoms firm Global Telecom Holding (GTHE.CA), the Egypt-based group formerly called Orascom Telecom, announced in a press release on Wednesday its consolidated financial results for 1Q2014 posting a net profits of USD 43 million.
Noting that the company posted USD 204 million net loss in the same period in 1Q2013.
Ahmed Abou Doma, Executive president, announced that he will resign from his position in Global Telecom on June 30. and that Vincenzo Nesci, Executive Chairman at Orascom Telecom Algeria, will be his successor.
Regarding the 1Q2014 results he commented “In the first quarter of 2014, our customers increased 8% YoY to exceed 90 million customers, driven by steady growth in Algeria and Pakistan as well as strong additions in Bangladesh. Group revenue amounted to USD 831 million for the quarter, organically stable compared to last year, with an EBITDA of USD 395 million. Reported results in US dollar were adversely impacted by the local currency depreciation against the US dollar, mainly in Pakistan. We continued to deliver an industry leading EBITDA margin of 47.6%, and generated USD 252 million in operating cash flow4 during the quarter. Net profit for the quarter stood at USD 43 million compared to a loss of USD 204 million for the same period last year. Our CAPEX increased 249% YoY, driven by the commencement of 3G deployment in Algeria, the continued deployment of 3G services and 2G network modernization in Bangladesh, and the network modernization in Pakistan.”
“On April 18, 2014, VimpelCom and GTH signed a Share Purchase Agreement with the Algerian Fonds National D’Investissement for the sale by GTH of a 51% interest in Orascom Telecom Algérie SpA with proceeds of USD 4 billion, which will be used to pay down the shareholder loan provided by VimpelCom to GTH, the transaction is subject to the approval of the shareholders participating in the upcoming extraordinary shareholders meeting with a majority of two-third of the votes,” He added
