Cairo – Mubasher: MubasherTrade Research has maintained its Buy/Moderate Risk rating for Telecom Egypt’s stock with the same price target (PT) of EGP 18.80 per share, implying an upside potential of 53%.

Telecom Egypt’s top-line revenues rose by 33% year-on-year in 2017 to EGP 18.57 billion, which is slightly higher than MubasherTrade’s estimates of EGP 17.76 billion, according to a recent report.

The research company attributed the growth in Telecom Egypt’s revenue to a 34% year-on-year surge in revenues from the home services segment to EGP 5.66 billion last year.

Revenues from the US dollar-denominated segments hiked by 57% year-on-year to EGP 6.81 billion in 2017, making up 36.7% of the top line, the report added.

The Egyptian telecom company’s net profit was also bolstered by its share of profit from Vodafone Egypt which soared by 250% year-on-year to EGP 2.34 billion in 2017, compared to EGP 668.4 million in 2016, beating MubasherTrade’s estimates of EGP 1.9 billion in 2017, the report highlighted.

“The low recorded share of profits in 2016 was attributable to VFE's FX loss of EGP 469.11 million in the fourth quarter of 2016 in the wake of the EGP floatation,” the report continued.

Given that Telecom Egypt reported an 18% year-on-year surge in consolidated profits for the full-year 2017, as net profit amounted to EGP 3.2 billion last year, compared to EGP 2.7 billion in 2016.