Riyadh - Mubasher: Saudi Mobile Telecommunications Co. (Zain KSA) posted on Thursday a 63.68% increase in losses in the second quarter of 2016 to SAR 329 million ($87.7 million), compared to SAR 201 million ($53.6 million) in the same quarter last year.

Losses also went up 31.6% quarter-on-quarter, according to a bourse filing.

The surge in losses is driven mainly by “the spending on the network infrastructure, the cost of the new biometric fingerprint identification regulations, and the increase in the cost of financing”.

Revenues improved in Q2-16 by 5% reaching SAR 1.7 million, and gross profits grew 17%, reaching SAR 1.1 million.

Similarly, the company maintained positive results in H1-16 with revenues increasing by 6%, reaching SAR 3,492 million, the highest since its inception.

In line with the wide decline in subscribers in KSA, Zain’s subscriber base decreased 8%, reaching 10.8 million at the end of Q2-16 compared to 11.8 million at the end of Q2-15.