Mubasher: Qatari-based telecom group Ooredoo posted a 60.4% year-on-year drop in profits for the second quarter of 2018.

Net profits of the dual-listed company on both the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) and the Abu Dhabi Securities (ADX) amounted to QAR 202.87 million ($56.73 million) in Q2-18, compared to QAR 512.67 million ($143.36 million) in Q2-17, according to the company’s statement to the QSE late Sunday.

For the first half of 2018, the Qatari telecommunication firm's net profits declined 37.2% to QAR 688.92 million, from QAR 1.96 billion in H1-17.

Earnings per share (EPS) went down to QAR 2.15 for the six-months period ended June, from QAR 3.42 in the same period of the prior year, according to the statement.

Moreover, revenues decreased by 6% year-on-year to QAR 15.3 billion, driven by strong contributions from Qatar, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait, Tunisia and Myanmar, offset by reductions in Indonesia and Algeria.

The group noted that the number of its customers stood at 130 million, negatively impacted by the new SIM card registration requirements by the Indonesian regulator.

It is worth noting that Ooredoo Qatar became the first operator in the world to launch a live 5G network on the 3.5GHz spectrum band.

As for Q1-18, Ooredoo’s net profits levelled down 16.8%  to QAR 486.05 million, versus QAR 584.11 million in the same period of the previous year.

By the end of Sunday’s session, Ooredoo’s stock retreated 0.11% at QAR 73.29.