Earnings call transcript: Ooredoo QPSC beats Q2 2025 revenue forecast, stock rises

Ooredoo QPSC reported its second-quarter 2025 earnings, surpassing revenue forecasts with actual revenue of 6.06 billion USD, compared to the expected 5.99 billion USD. This positive surprise of 1.17% was well-received by investors, leading to a 5.16% increase in the company’s stock price, which closed at 13.46 USD. The earnings per share (EPS) were reported at 0.31 USD, aligning with market expectations. According to InvestingPro data, the company maintains a notably low price volatility with a beta of 0.2, making it an attractive option for stability-focused investors.

Key Takeaways

• Ooredoo’s Q2 revenue exceeded forecasts by 1.17%.
• The company’s stock price rose by 5.16% post-earnings announcement.
• Strategic investments continue in digital transformation and 5G preparations.

Company Performance

Ooredoo QPSC demonstrated robust performance in the first half of 2025, with group revenues reaching 11.9 billion BRL, marking a 4% increase year-on-year, excluding the Myanmar market exit. The company maintained a consistent EBITDA margin of 43%, reflecting operational efficiency. Its strategic focus on digital transformation and expanding data center capabilities has positioned it well in competitive markets.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: 6.06 billion USD (up from 5.99 billion USD forecasted)
• Earnings per share: 0.31 USD (met expectations)
• Net profit: 2 billion BRL (4% increase year-on-year)
• EBITDA: 5.1 billion BRL

Earnings vs. Forecast

Ooredoo’s Q2 revenue of 6.06 billion USD exceeded the forecast of 5.99 billion USD, resulting in a revenue surprise of 1.17%. The EPS of 0.31 USD met market expectations, aligning with the company’s consistent performance trend.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings announcement, Ooredoo’s stock price increased by 5.16%, closing at 13.46 USD. The stock’s movement reflects positive investor sentiment, driven by the revenue beat and strategic initiatives. The current price is close to its 52-week high of 13.6 USD, indicating strong market confidence.

Outlook & Guidance

Ooredoo expects to achieve a 2% to 3% revenue growth target for the year. The company plans to continue strategic investments in data centers and infrastructure, with a CapEx guidance of 4.5 to 5 billion BRL. Preparations for 5G launches in multiple markets are underway, which are expected to bolster future growth. The company’s strong financial health is reflected in its moderate debt levels, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, as reported by InvestingPro. This conservative financial approach positions the company well for its planned expansions while maintaining its impressive 21-year dividend payment history.

Executive Commentary

"We delivered double-digit growth in Algeria with high single-digit gains in Iraq and Tunisia," said Aziz Aluthman Farruh, Group CEO. He emphasized the company’s focus on maintaining profitable market share and enhancing EBITDA margins. "We’re in a constant digital migration, adopting new technologies," added Aziz, highlighting the company’s commitment to innovation.

Risks and Challenges

• Competitive pressures in the telecom market, particularly in Oman.
• Potential market saturation in established regions.
• Macroeconomic factors affecting consumer spending and investment.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the dividend calculation methodology and market dynamics in Iraq and Qatar. The introduction of Starlink was discussed, with minimal impact expected on Ooredoo’s operations. Challenges in Oman’s competitive telecom market were also addressed, with strategies outlined to maintain market share.

Ooredoo’s strong Q2 results and strategic focus on digital transformation have reinforced its competitive position in the telecom industry, with future growth prospects aligned with its 5G and data center expansion plans.

Full transcript - Ooredoo QPSC (ORDS) Q2 2025:

Noel Pillay, Head of Investor Relations, Uiru Group: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Uiru Group’s Half Year twenty twenty five Results Call covering the six month period ending June 30. I’m Noel Pillay, Head of Investor Relations for the Group. Joining me today is our group CEO, Aziz Aluthman Farruh, who will begin with a summary of the key highlights from the first half of the year. He will then provide a detailed look at the performance of our data center and fintech verticals, followed by an overview of our consolidated results. After Aziz, our Group CFO Abdullah Al Zaman will take you through a deeper review of the operational performance across the nine markets.

As always, we’ll keep the presentation concise to ensure there’s plenty of time to address your questions at the end. Please feel free to submit your questions at any time using the Q and A function here in Zoom. The presentation slides are available on our website at uweedo.com as well as on this webcast platform. Please note that the session is being recorded and transcribed. By joining you consent to being included.

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on Slide two. And with that, I’ll hand over to Aziz to begin the presentation.

Aziz Aluthman Farruh, Group CEO, Uiru Group: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our H1 twenty twenty five investor call. For the first half of the year, we delivered strong financial results, made steady progress in executing our strategy and continue to drive sustainable profitability. To start, here’s a brief look at H1 twenty twenty five. Our core remains strong with resilient results from our GCC market and strong performance in our high growth markets.

We delivered double digit growth in Algeria with high single digit gains in Iraq and Tunisia. This demonstrates the benefit of a balanced portfolio combined with our strategic investments. This operational strength is driving sustainable profitability. Net profit grew by 4% year on year, and our EBITDA margin remains at a solid 43%. We have a clear strategy that is focused on delivering long term growth and value as we move towards becoming a leading digital infrastructure provider in the MEDA region.

We have made steady progress. ON towers closing in Qatar is progressing well. We strategically spun off our data centers into Syntis and partnered with Iron Mountain to enhance and expand our data center capabilities. Since becoming an NVIDIA cloud partner a year ago, we have successfully launched Qatar’s sovereign AI cloud services built on the latest NVIDIA GPU hosted in Redo data centers and operated by Synthes, positioning Redo at the forefront of AI innovation. We are building the largest subsea cable in the GCC to expand infrastructure and connectivity.

This cable will link all GCC countries and beyond, serving as a critical enabler of high capacity, low latency connectivity between Asia and Europe. We have already concluded landing agreements in Kuwait and Iraq. We are also scaling our fintech offering, unlocking new value in this growing sector. We have a healthy financial position. Our balance sheet is strong, giving us flexibility to invest for growth.

We have BRL 14,800,000,000.0 in cash reserves and BRL 5,500,000,000.0 available in undrawn facilities. We have clear capital allocation priorities and maintain disciplined decision making to maximize value creation. Now we will move on to take a more detailed look at our data center and fintech verticals. Data center remains a dynamic high growth area of our business in H1. Syntex delivered around BRL74 million of revenue, with a majority of the revenue coming from hyperscalers.

EBITDA totaled about BRL 25,000,000. Strategic partnerships remain central to our growth. And as mentioned already, Iron Mountain acquired a minority stake in Syntis, supporting its expansion. And Syntis was key to launching a reduced sovereign AI services and help advance our partnership with NVIDIA by bringing their latest GPUs to our Qatar facilities. With a committed investment of $1,000,000,000 and an initial funding of $500,000,000 we have we are focused on scaling data center capacity beyond 120 megawatts over the medium term.

We continue to advance financial inclusion through mobile led solution and have a growing market share in international remittance markets. We already have fintech offerings in Qatar, Oman and Maldives. Looking at a snapshot of H1 numbers for this vertical, revenue was around R44 million dollars with more than three quarters of this coming from international remittances. We’ve invested just under R18 million dollars of CapEx to enter new markets. We currently have around 330,000 active users each month.

In Qatar, EBITDA reached R17 million dollars and we’ve processed over $6,000,000,000 in transaction. We’re seeing good traction in Oman, where we have around 51,000 registered users and fifteen thousand thirty day active users. We are progressing well with the expansion of the fintech vertical. We received approval in principle for a license in Tunisia. Implementation is growing smoothly with strong traction on the ground.

In Iraq, our regulatory engagement is going well. We are making steady progress on incorporation, and our local partnerships are strong. Overall, we are laying the groundworks for a scalable structured rollout. In Kuwait, we are currently exploring the best way to enter the market, keeping an eye on strategic fit and long term value. Fintech remains a significant untapped opportunity in Oredo’s market, with an access to over 50,000,000 customers on the network.

We continue to drive our effort to capture this market. Turning to our performance for the first half. The group achieved sustainable strong growth, reflecting operational strength and strategic investments. The financial highlights for the first half reflect growth across most of the key metrics. Excluding the impact of our exits from the Myanmar operation, revenue increased by 4% and EBITDA grew by 3%.

We maintained a consistent EBITDA margin at 43%. Net profit increased by 4%. As you can see from the slide, the solid momentum seen in the first quarter continued into Q2, with growth across a majority of our key metrics. Turning to our top line performance. Group revenues reached BRL 11,900,000,000.0 for the first half.

Excluding the impact of Myanmar exit, H1 revenue increased by 4% year on year, and Q2 revenues increased by 5% year on year. H1 strong results in Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Qatar and Kuwait underpin this growth. Revenue in Oman and Palestine was impacted by its highly competitive market and macroeconomic pressures, respectively. Looking at EBITDA. Top line growth with our focus on operational efficiency and profitability contributed to a strong EBITDA performance.

EBITDA reached BRL 5,100,000,000.0 for the first half. Excluding the impact of Myanmar exit, EBITDA increased by a healthy 3% year on year in both H1 and Q2. EBITDA margin remained solid at 43%. Kuwait, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia and Maldives enhanced their contribution to the group overall profitability in the first half. Turning to net profit for the first half.

We are achieving consistent and sustainable profitability. On a reported basis, net profit increased by 4% to just shy of BRL 2,000,000,000. Net profit incorporates a Pillar two impact of BRL 112,000,000, aligned with new global minimum tax regulation. For Q2, we delivered net profit growth on a reported basis of 3% and by an impressive 12% on a normalized basis since the previous year included a gain from the disposal of Myanmar. We continue to invest strategically to expand and future proof our networks, positioning us for sustainable growth and market leadership.

In the first half, we’ve invested 1,500,000,000.0, representing a 49% increase year on year. We ramped up spend mainly in Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, Kuwait and Oman, along with data center expansions. Group free cash flows decreased by 11% year on year to BRL 3,600,000,000.0 in H1 due to accelerated spending on CapEx projects driven by strong market demand and growth in Iraq, Algeria and Tunisia. We are already seeing measurable results from these projects as reflected by the strong performance from these operations. Free cash flow in Q2 also reflects data center expansion and lower contribution from IOH.

We continue to add more customer and now have about 52,000,000 customers across our network, an increase of 4% year on year. Including IOH customer, the customer base stood at just over 147,000,000 customers. Looking at our balance sheet. Our strong investment grade financial standing is evident in these charts. Our leverage remains conservative at 0.7x, comfortably below Board guidance.

We have strong cash and liquidity reserve in place to comfortably meet our upcoming debt maturities. With 91% of our debt fixed, we have stability in our cost of capital. Looking at how we are tracking against our full year 2025 guidance, we expect revenue to continue the current trajectory. We delivered a 4% uplift, excluding the Myanmar exit in H1 and expected to meet our 2% to 3% growth target. Our EBITDA margin of 43% for the first half aligns closely with our 2025 guidance of low 40s.

We have invested BRL 1,500,000,000.0 in CapEx during the first half and will continue to invest strategically in our core businesses as well as in data center and subsea cable projects, keeping us on course to meet our guidance range of BRL 4,500,000,000.0 to 5,000,000,000. To conclude, Borreto Group delivered strong results in the first half of the year, positioning us well for continued growth in the second half. We remain committed to driving robust and sustained profitability while achieving our strategic priorities. On this note, I leave it to Abdullah to take you through the operational review. Thank you very much.

Abdullah Al Zaman, Group CFO, Uiru Group: Thank you, Aziz. Good afternoon, everyone. I will take you through the group year on year operational performance for the 2025. Beginning with our home market, Oridu Qatar maintained its leading premium positions and strong ARPU despite a flat overall market. The financial performance for the first half showed positive momentum.

On a normalized basis, revenue increased by 2%, with EBITDA remained flat. The operation continues to show strong financial discipline by improving efficiency to deliver a solid EBITDA margin of 52%. Total customers stood at 2,900,000, while the mobile postpaid customer base grew by 20 The first

Noel Pillay, Head of Investor Relations, Uiru Group: nineteen quarter while the total revenue

Abdullah Al Zaman, Group CFO, Uiru Group: increased was by 21% due to lower device sales. Normalizing for the one off bad debt provision raised in H1 twenty twenty four, EBITDA grew by 14%, supported by higher service revenue combined with disciplined cost control. EBITDA margin expanded to 34%, up by eight percentage points. The customer base increased by 1% to 2,900,000. Onto Oman.

Borido Oman maintained a strong cost discipline despite the market headwinds while advancing its five gs initiatives to deliver a high quality network and leading customer experience. Revenue and EBITDA decreased by 26%, respectively. EBITDA margin remains strong at 45%. The customer base grew by 6% to 3,100,000, driven by focus on customer value moving to Iraq. In Iraq, HSL delivered another period of a good growth driven by customer acquisition and healthy performance on the data segment.

Revenue increased by a strong 8%, driven by growing customer base and higher adoption of data services. EBITDA increased by 3%, driven by top line growth and partially offsetted by increased operational expenses. AsiaCell delivered a strong EBITDA margin of 45%. The customer base grew by 6% to 19,400,000, reflecting successful marketing execution and a growing consumer engagement. Now looking at Algeria.

A standout performance within the group, we saw impressive double digit growth. Revenue increased by 13% in local currency, driven by continued growth across voice, data, digital services. Top line growth led to a strong EBITDA increase of 20% in local currency with an EBITDA margin of 45%, up by three percentage point. This customer base grew by 6% to 14,500,000. The stronger growth across the key metrics confirms that our strategic investment in expanding and improving their network are delivering measurable results.

Additional, in July, Oridu, Algeria secured a five gs license. This is a key strategic milestone that support long term growth and engagement. On Tunisia, a strong performance on both the mobile and fixed segment contribute to Oridu Tunisia growth. Revenue increased by 7% in the local currency, driven mainly by mobile service, supported by high quality acquisition and CVM initiative. Top lines also reflect the increased demand for high speed Internet in fiber and fixed wireless access.

Revenue uplift support a healthy EBITDA increase of 9% in local currency. EBITDA margin was up by one percent point to 42%. The customer base grew by 2% to 7,000,000. Going to Maldives. In Maldives, despite the elevated competition on the mobile market, The operation clearly focused on cost control led to a healthy performance.

Revenue decreased slightly by 1%, mainly due to lower revenue from the mobile segment. EBITDA increased by 3%, while EBITDA margin improved by two percentage points to strong 55%. Oridu Maldives remained the leader in the customer experience and network quality. Moving to Palestine. In the challenging condition, our team performance is truly admirable.

Oridu Palestine continues to support customers, delivering a leading customer experience to 1,500,000 customer on the network. Revenue decreased by 7% and EBITDA was down by 6% on the reported basis. EBITDA margin was stood at 40%, reflecting disciplined cost control and operation performance. Finally, our joint venture, IOH, published respectable results for the first half of the year, while revenue and EBITDA decreased by 34%, respectively. EBITDA margin was maintained at a solid 40%.

The performance was impacted by intense competition on the market. However, on a quarter basis, EBITDA performance has trended positively. This concludes the operational review. Back to Laval. Thank you very much.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Thank you very much, Aziz and Abdullah. We have now reached the Q and A segment of today’s call. Here’s how you can participate. You can raise your virtual hand and I’ll unmute your line with. Alternatively, you can type your questions into the Q and A box.

And if you’re dialing in via phone line, please press 9 to ask a question. For q and a, I’m joined by senior leadership. Together with Aziz and Abdullah, we have our deputy CFO, Iyas Asif. So let’s open up the floor to questions. I don’t see any questions.

Oh, I see one. Our first question comes from Madi Singh from HSBC. Please go ahead, Madi.

Madi Singh, Analyst, HSBC: Yes. Hi. Thank you. Can you hear me?

Moderator, Uiru Group: Yes. We can hear you.

Madi Singh, Analyst, HSBC: Great. Thanks thanks a lot for taking my question. My first question is just wanted to be reminded about the dividend calculation methodology. When you give your guidance, are you what is the net income base you are using for dividend calculation? Is it still the normalized net income but with the effects included there?

So if you could confirm that, that will be great. The reason I’m asking is because I think that net income line is growing very strongly. So I’m just trying to understand, you know, what happens to dividend in in that regard. And then second question is if you could update on the performance in Iraq. Has there been any change in the, you know, the market structure or, let’s say, you know, how CoreC has been behaving, any update on the five g launch and so on.

So if you could just talk about the Iraqi market. And finally, also, you know, your CapEx run rate looks a bit lower compared to the full year guidance. So should we expect a catch up in the second half? And is the lower run rate because of any bulky CapEx which is to be done? Or it is just regular cash CapEx but running at a slower run rate?

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: Thank you for this question. I think we you’re always one of the first to ask the questions. It’s usually you or a current capital, I think.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Oh, Mishek.

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: Mishek. Mishek. We’re which is there also. Congratulations to both of you. So, look, there’s a a lot of questions here.

One, regarding the dividend policy is based on normalized net income. Normalized net income, the normalization is as according to the chart we produce during the sections, which was before where we showed the different normalization. I’ll let Eaz if he wants to go No.

Financial Representative, Uiru Group: I actually, his calculation is correct. Yeah. So it’s we exclude the onetime adjustment, but is included. And, you know, we we’ve been on

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: a very strong net income growth for the last four years. I hope you don’t only attribute that to FX and give a bit of credit to the management of the company and all its employees.

Madi Singh, Analyst, HSBC: Not at all. Not at all. I was just looking at the dividend group.

Financial Representative, Uiru Group: That’s it.

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: When it comes to Iraq, so currently, there’s no change in the landscape in terms of COREC for the time being. The direction from the regulator, has suspended interconnect, etcetera, is still in place. Five g, fourth operator launch to what we know, and we’re planning and structuring ahead, and this will link to your CapEx question. As stated by the regulators, so it’s normally a launch of operation towards the very end of this year. And I think Iraq’s operation, when you look at the total market growth of roughly four and a half percent, we’re growing at around nine plus percent, if I’m not mistaken, Eeyas.

I think it’s really a testament to the strength of the team in in Iraq. To your last points in terms of CapEx, look, there’s a lot of cyclicality into CapEx because there are long lead times to procurement, import duties, etcetera, etcetera. So what you do see year on year is a huge CapEx ramp up towards the last quarter of the year because we’re preponing basically a lot of orders for the year to come so that we can start the year directly installing and building up our investment, whether it’s network, ground, core, etcetera, etcetera. So there is a buildup in the CapEx cyclicality. As mentioned, our CapEx envelope this year is slightly higher than the previous year.

If you look at it from a telecom perspective, it’s relatively in line, but we do have the FIG and Sonic cables in place plus the data center expansion, which are going through. So this will pull some CapEx towards the end of the year. We also to note, there’s a bit of luck because it depends on regulators, but also quite a bit of good planning. We have three markets which are have launched or will be launching in a Horizon five g, which is Tunisia, which is live five g. Algeria, where people in the auction one of the auctions for five g, and we’re looking to launch, I think, towards the the end of this year.

And Iraq, as you mentioned, there’s still a bit of confusion around the regulation. But all the CapEx we’ve been doing in the past years has always been five g ready. So we’re not seeing a surge, a massive surge because of these new licenses.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Thank you, Anzid. Our next question comes from Nishat Lakotia from Sibyl Bank. Please go ahead, Nishat.

Nishat Lakotia, Analyst, Sibyl Bank: Yes. Thank you for the call, and congrats on a good quarter. I have a couple of questions. First, at your home market, Qatar, it’s it’s been broadly stable to bit declining. I know you’ve talked about a certain event last year.

But when we look at your competitor and the performance of your competitor, I mean, the same factor will apply to your competitor as well, and they’ve been doing much better. So how do you look at this in terms of how you’re looking losing market share? Is your competitor gaining market share And what’s your strategy for Qatar market? So that’s on the first question.

Second, coming back on the Iraq operations itself, it’s been doing very well. You you’ve been growing faster than the market. But are you concerned that this growth may not be sustainable once this new operator is launched because the competitive dynamics that would come in the five g. And at the same time, the other market that are growing for the group, which is Tunisia and Algeria, how do you see the growth in the coming quarters? Is this rate sustainable?

And how do you see the five g launch affecting the growth in Algeria and Tunisia? Do you think the same rate or it could be better post launch of five g in these two markets? Yeah. That’s it from me. Thank you.

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: So, again, three questions in one. I’ll try to address all of them. So when it comes to Qatar, I think the right statement is not growing. It’s stable. And this is the goal we have in Qatar is to maintain a stable position, and I think Qatar’s management is doing a good job at that.

There is very rough number. When you look at the overall RMS or service market share, you know, we’re we’re roughly at the split of seventy thirty, and we try to hover around these these area. Every one quarter, it drops slightly. The next quarter, there’s a slight catch up. I think it’s a healthy way.

We don’t want to push too hard because suddenly and we’ve witnessed this in other markets. We’ve also learned that in the past. When you become when you’re the leading player and you become a bit too dominant,

Aziz Aluthman Farruh, Group CEO, Uiru Group: then

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: it triggers usually a price war, which would completely destroy the market. Also, yes, there are areas within our portfolio where our market position is untenable in the long term. One area where our competitor is doing a great job is on the fixed market, for instance, fixed broadband. We were at 90% market share maybe a couple of years ago. As you can imagine, sustaining and maintaining at 90% market share is impossible and is not healthy for the market.

So there are some small pockets in the segmentation where we will lose naturally, organically some some market share. That being said, we’re still extremely focused on the premium segment of the market, and this translate also we might have a slightly slower customer acquisition in the market, but we also benefit from a significant ARPU premium. And I think this is what we’re trying to protect, and you you’ve heard this management say it over and over and over again. We’re slightly less focused on pure revenue market share. We’re we’re focus very focused on profitable profitable market share and EBITDA market share.

And these when you look at these parameters, we’re actually very happy with the performance in Qatar. Iraq. What what was the question on Iraq? Iraq. No.

There there was a the growth growth in growth in Iraq and five g, how do we see the the growth going and and especially Tunisia and Algeria? Slightly linked question. Look. Iraq, we still believe we can continue to grow with a new entrant coming in. We’re fine tuning our models.

We’re also and you will appreciate that we’ll be quite cryptic on these questions because we’re preparing our commercial strategies to prepare ourselves for a new entrant. A new entrant will, of course, will have a dilutive effect on the market. There it’s simple laws of math. The new entrant will acquire market share. The new a new entrant usually dilutes ARPU.

Our main job is to ensure that we sustain a very healthy level of growth and that the acquisition of new market share comes out of other people’s pockets and as little as possible than than from our pocket. And we’re preparing a strategy. And as I said, we have a very, very strong team in Iraq, and I’m very confident that we’ll be very well prepared for that. Going to Algeria and Tunisia, we’re seeing very strong growth in both of these markets. We don’t see that growth significantly eroding.

Of course, market matures. That’s a normal factor. We have five g coming in. There’s usually a dual effect when you look at five g entering. You have, on one side, a slight compression of the total yield you get for data, but on the other side, a significant increase in consumption of data.

So we see it as a net net positive.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Thank you. Okay. So we have typed questions from Raghad Al Tamimi. How has Ouija’s digital transformation contributed to improving its EBITDA margin of Oreedo? Great.

I’ll ask them one by one.

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: Alright. Look. We’re we’re in a constant digital migration, adoption of new technologies from digital distribution to AI to machine learning. We, as a group and not just in Kuwait, we need to constantly adopt these new technologies and reinvent ourselves for many reason. One is consumer centricity.

More and more, you’re seeing behaviors where customers if they can interact as little as possible with human beings, whether it’s queuing in a shop or being on the call center queue, the happier they are. So some of these transform digital transformation have customer benefits and not dollar benefits, but this, again, translate in lower churn and brand loyalty. Other transformations, of course, if you take digital distribution when you can sell your recharges through your digital app, well, you reduce the commission you’re paying to third party distribution channels. So this has immediate cost of sales reduction and translate in higher EBITDA margin. I think we’ve been constantly growing our EBITDA margin as a group and operation by operation.

If I’m not mistaken, I think three, four years ago, Kuwait’s EBITDA margin was in the low thirties. Yes. Now we’re hovering to close to the forties. I think that shows the level of efficiencies we’ve been driving in Kuwait. But my current statement, if you take every single of our operation, is true.

As a group, we were in the mid to high thirties as EBITDA margin. Today, we are in the mid forties, and we’re still pushing to increase that EBITDA profitability. If you

Financial Representative, Uiru Group: are lobbying, the growth in the revenue in Kuwait is coming from voice data and digital service, not just coming from one source of revenue. Therefore, we see it that the quality of revenue has increased. Today, the the EBITDA is 34%, but if you normalize it for the handset, it’s almost 41% for Kuwait.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Yes. I think that question two was covered on specific cost areas. Question three, how much did the 15% minimum under DMTT pillar two impact where we recruit net income in h one twenty twenty five. And on this as well, he would like would like to add how would what would be the impact at year end of 2025 going forward?

Abdullah Al Zaman, Group CFO, Uiru Group: What is it? This is I can take the I don’t see or it is not a material impact for or we do Kuwait, actually. This is what we have booked, if I’m not mistaken, the first half about 15,000,000.

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: So exactly. Yeah.

Abdullah Al Zaman, Group CFO, Uiru Group: Yeah. 15,000,000. So if we talk talk about the second half, it would be another 15,000,000. So approximately, there’s a 30,000,000 QR. So I don’t see this is a material impact on Kuwait.

Financial Representative, Uiru Group: The main reason that’s not impacted because by implementing the pillar tool, they removed the SECA and the Social Security, which was almost 3.5% from the total net profit. Therefore, the banking kit is very minor.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Next question, also staying on Kuwait. Kuwait is the fourth country contributor in terms of total revenue with only 6% customer base. Provide more insights on this.

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: It’s

Financial Representative, Uiru Group: mainly the. Yeah. It’s the same like.

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: I know. The six per ah, it’s for the whole group. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But It’s it’s just a pure ARPU. You know? We if you look certain markets, we have ARPUs which are closer to $80. On a blended total customer base across the group, our ARPU is an average of 8 or $9. So that gives the discrepancy of ARPU between between countries, geographies.

Financial Representative, Uiru Group: Thank you. The second highest ARPU.

Moderator, Uiru Group: I don’t see any more questions. I’m just gonna give it about ten seconds. Yep. No more questions if the results were clear? K.

So since there anymore

Financial Representative, Uiru Group: no Ziyad.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Ziyad, it’s time. Thank you, Ziyad. You’re good. Please go ahead, Ziyad, from.

Ziyad, Analyst, Unknown: Thank you, and congratulations on the strong results. Just one more one small question from our end, specifically on the associate JV income. It seems there’s a sharp drop in the second quarter down 95% or so year on year and even sequentially. I understand you have a lot of associates, JP. Probably the biggest is the one you have with Hutchison, Indonesia and the South Hutchison, but also you have NavLink, Asia Mobile, Onefix, and so many other on public.

So what’s the reason behind this drop, and how should we think about it going forward? Do you expect this to recover? Because the impact on EBITDA is close to 3% this quarter since you account for it within the this line item. Thank you.

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: So the the the main contributor to our associate is IOH, and the drop is mainly linked to IOH. Indonesia around end of q three of last year, price war was triggered by one of our competitors, which has significantly negatively affected all operators because you can’t stay idle. We actually took a position to lose market share, but we’re trying to maintain price discipline in the market. It took around three quarters of significant deterioration. And by the way, IOH, first of all, has their own disclosures because they’re listed.

So I’d suggest to go through there, but IOH was probably one of the least impacted in terms of value out of the different operators in Indonesia, the offset of this price war. What we’re starting to see is people have taken the painful lessons, and we’re slowly entering a track of recovery in terms of market repair and discipline. So we think the market is stabilizing now.

Financial Representative, Uiru Group: If you allow me just to elaborate. Actually, the draw shows 90,000,000 yacht. One of the one of the main reason, in addition to the reason mentioned by Aziz, there was one accounting adjustment related to the booking of this asset and this liability there. As you know, in in Dussat, the booking the using the local standard. We are using the IFRS.

So it’s only accounting adjustment entry. It’s can say contribute 50% for this difference.

Ziyad, Analyst, Unknown: Okay. I see. That’s very clear. Thank you. And if I may add just one more question on the Omani market, it seems competition is very tough, and it might even intensify more with getting a mobile license before end of the year.

So what’s your plan for that? What’s the turnaround strategy for this market specifically?

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: There’s no way to sugarcoat this. Oman is a very tough market. It it is at least my opinion that, you know, a market of the size of Oman, with the growth of Oman, which has now three real operators and at least four or five MVNOs operating is unsustainable in the long run. That being said, Oman is still one of our core markets. We’re very committed.

And despite of this, yes, there’s a significant erosion in performance versus where it was three years ago before they enter third entrance, it is still a market which has a 40 plus EBITDA margin. So it’s still a healthy market. And also Oman is very core to us for Stelco operation, but it’s also the first market outside of Qatar where we launched our mobile financial services. It’s key when we look at two of our major infrastructure projects, whether it’s FIG or SONIC, both start landing. The first connectivity to the Asia route is in Oman and is also core to our data center operation.

So we’re still very committed to Oman. It is an extremely challenging market, and we hope that, over time, it rationalized. We’ve seen this in many markets. I think the, telecom industry is not, new to these kinds of situation. It usually takes slightly longer than reasonable for these markets to rationalize, but over time, there will be inevitable rationalization.

All these power players can’t sustain a market that aggressive. We’re lucky to be in a position where we’re strong enough as a market position to sustain it.

Ziyad, Analyst, Unknown: Makes sense. And just finally on the same topic, any updates on the separate tower sales initiative in this market?

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: So we’re still working with them there. It’s to be very, very candid, it hasn’t been our number one priority in Oman, and it hasn’t been our number one priority on the tower sales. We’re really focused to closing our main transaction in Qatar first so that we can start closing the rest of the markets. I think once that hurdle is passed, and hopefully this year and soon, we can then start focusing on OMAD.

Ziyad, Analyst, Unknown: That’s very clear. Thank you.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Thanks, Syed. We have another question from. Please go ahead,

Nishat Lakotia, Analyst, Sibyl Bank: Yeah. Am am I audible?

Moderator, Uiru Group: Yes. You are.

Nishat Lakotia, Analyst, Sibyl Bank: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you again for the opportunity. I have two questions. First, on the Uredu Kuwait group, would would this current strategy of up streaming 90 to a 100% of the as a payout from Udaydu Kuwait continue given that the operation is generating a lot of cash, which is needed for up now.

I mean, not can be and you are the major shareholder in nine more than 90% of of of the group. So that’s the first question. And second, on Maldives, how much percentage of your cash is stuck in Maldives given that there is a big haircut or very difficult to upstream cash from Maldives currently?

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: So coming to to to Kuwait, yes, the dividend policy, I don’t think we’re going to change it. We own 90 plus percent of OIDO Kuwait. I think if we were able to do a squeeze out delisting, we would. It only makes sense for us to upstream to upstream the profitability back to the group shareholders because ultimately, the group shareholders represent more than 90% of Kuwait. Regarding Maldives, yes, it’s no secret that there are currency exchange liquidity issues.

We’re working very closely with the government to find solutions. We’re able to upstream partially some of our cash, not fully. We’ve been again in these situations in the past in other operation, namely Iraq. We’ve always found solution. It’s not as fast everyone would like.

We wouldn’t. We don’t want to be in this position, but it’s part of the geographies we’ve decided to operate in. And if for us, it’s business as usual. So we’re confident that we’ll find a solution, and we’re working on that.

Nishat Lakotia, Analyst, Sibyl Bank: Okay. Thank you.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Thanks, Nishat. And I have question, another one from Rachad Al Tamimi. What will be the impact of Honoridu revenues after the launch of Starlink, which has been recently announced?

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: Star look. Starlink is an amazing technology. What they’re able to do is really fascinating. Then, you know, for dense urban areas, their technology cannot come close in terms to fix fiber or even our mobile networks. Also, in a country like Qatar, we have 99% coverage in five g where you can you have speeds of north of a 100 plus megabytes.

We have the second, depending on the ranking, between first and third fastest network in the world. So we’re very confident that Starlink, apart from some remote cases, people camping in very remote areas, some yachts using it, etcetera, there is limited impact to us. Actually, there’s a positive is people tend to forget that technologies like Starlink need round relays. We actually provide the connectivity to one of these these ground relays in the region as Qatar. So that’s actually a revenue stream for us.

So I think it’s a net positive for the time being.

Moderator, Uiru Group: Thank you, There are no further questions. So since there are no more questions, thank you for joining today’s call. Results are expected to be released in October with the Capital Markets Day for q four of this year. If you have any further questions or any follow ups, please feel free to reach out to the Investor Relations team. Thank you once again for joining.

We look forward to connecting with you soon.

Aziz, Senior Leadership, Uiru Group: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

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