News Desk
ABU DHABI: e& announced its consolidated financial results for Q1 2023. e&’s consolidated revenues reached AED 13.0 billion. At constant exchange rates, revenue increased by 6.6 per cent. Consolidated net profit recorded AED 2.2 billion while consolidated EBITDA reached AED 6.2 billion, resulting in an EBITDA margin of 48 per cent.
In the UAE etisalat by e& recorded 13.9 million subscribers an increase of 6 per cent compared to the same period of last year, The Group’s aggregate subscribers reached 164 million, a YoY increase of 3 per cent.
The Group’s focus on expanding its digital offering and launching innovative new solutions and partnerships with leading technology companies around the world as part of its drive to become a global technology player has driven business growth.
Through a series of prudent mergers and acquisitions, e& is strengthening its position focused on delivering innovative solutions and driving digital transformation.
The financial performance in Q1 2023 further strengthened e &’s global position as the most valuable telecoms brand portfolio in the Middle East and Africa, according to 2023 Brand Finance, while the Group’s largest telecoms brand, etisalat by e&, continued to deliver outstanding innovative services as one of the three top telecoms brands in the world, and retained its position as the strongest telecom brand across all categories in the MEA region.
Hatem Dowidar, Group CEO, e&, said: “The Group’s performance in the first quarter indicates growth in the number of subscribers, revenues, and profits in local currencies, but was impacted by the strong fluctuations in the currency exchange rate within the Egyptian and Pakistani markets. This growth can be attributed to the Group’s flexibility and efforts to provide innovative business solutions and the latest technologies to the communities we serve. Furthermore, the Group has succeeded in building unique digital experiences supported by strategic investments, to enhance our business portfolio.
“etisalat by e& Egypt and PTCL in Pakistan successfully achieved their strategic goals by enhancing their customers’ digital experience while achieving growth based on local currency revenues, the strong fluctuations in the exchange rates of the Egyptian pound and the Pakistani rupee, coupled with the unprecedentedly high inflation rates in the two markets, have negatively impacted revenues and profits reported in AED. As a result, these effects were evident in the Group’s consolidated results.
“With a vision to create a more progressive business model, we have continued to explore new avenues, expand our offerings and forge new partnerships. Our recent investment in Careem’s Super App is another strategic step in our transformation into a global technology group by bringing more digital services into our customers’ daily lives.
“We will continue to explore future technologies and develop new verticals that will accelerate digital transformation, positively impacting businesses and people’s lives while maximising value creation for our shareholders.”
Key operational highlights and developments for Q1 2023
e&
The Group recently signed a binding agreement with Uber Technologies, Inc (“Uber”) and its subsidiary Careem to acquire a majority stake in Careem’s Super App spinout with an investment of $400 million, as part of e&’s strategic ambition to expand its digital consumer offering and accelerate its transformation into a global technology and investment group.
e& has successfully completed the acquisition of ServiceMarket, expanding the range of digital services on the Smiles online marketplace and offering more everyday services to its customers. It has further strengthened its global positioning this year, being recognised as the most valuable telecoms brand portfolio in the MEA region, worth over $14 billion, according to the 2023 Brand Finance Global 500 Report.
e& has taken further steps in the use of cutting-edge technologies by partnering with E-Space to develop satellite-based cloud-native digital and IoT solutions optimised with edge AI to maximise the value of borderless smart connectivity and digital solutions across land, sea, and air applications.
The Group has also partnered with Intel to focus on the deployment of edge data centres with a focus on a net zero carbon footprint, incorporating the latest 4th generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors.
In addition, e& also announced its intention to integrate Microsoft Azure OpenAI GPT into its internal operations and processes, as well as a potential service to improve the customer experience and support the media industry in its daily tasks.
etisalat by e&
The telecoms arm of e& maintained its position as the strongest telecoms brand in any category in the MEA region this year, achieving a score of 89.1 out of 100 and an AAA rating. It was also ranked in the top three telecoms brands globally according to the 2023 Brand Finance Global 500 report.
Embracing digital experiences and cutting-edge solutions, etisalat by e& teamed up with Samsung to extend the existing partnership beyond smart devices and collaborated with Huawei to successfully deploy and test the 5G Portable Private Network MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) functionality.
etisalat by e& also announced the implementation of the first 5G SatComs in the region with the EUTELSAT QUANTUM satellite solution to extend 5G network capabilities on a software-defined satellite and to meet future applications that require higher throughput.
To provide the best innovative solutions, etisalat by e& opened a new Mobile Security Operation Centre (MSOC) in collaboration with the UAE Cybersecurity Council to provide business customers with real-time protection services to safeguard mobile phones from malicious attacks. etisalat by e& also deployed the private Microsoft Azure Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) solution for enterprises as one of the first operators in the MENA region.
e& international
e& international continued to drive its portfolio of telecom and digital assets while focusing on higher resilience in a challenging macro-economic environment. This included an acute focus on adapting existing business parameters to new realities, as well as, focusing on diversification of the product portfolio in order to generate new digital revenue streams, and maintaining leadership in customer experience.
e& international OpCos continued to relentlessly improve their customer experience and most achieved number one position in their markets in the quarter. It also launched the ‘e& partner networks’ to support the growth of global telecom operators, offering access to market best practices, cutting-edge services, and the benefits of e&’s scale to telecom operators around the world.
Tunisie Telecom became the first company to join the ‘e& partner network’ programme, supporting the future growth of the Tunisian national operator.
etisalat by e& in Egypt partnered with the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) to launch a new fintech company, ‘Erada Microfinance’ with the aim of enabling a wide range of financial services for micro and small enterprises. In line with e&’s aim to enable a greener future, it deployed a Smart Connected Site solution, which will allow e&’s subsidiary in Egypt to reduce fuel costs and CO2 emissions by up to 40 per cent as well as decrease reliance on fossil fuels.
PTCL and Vodafone have initiated a strategic collaboration to develop and deliver a full suite of end-to-end IoT services aimed towards accelerating enterprise digital enablement and improving the adoption of connected services in Pakistan.
e& life
e& life made more innovative solutions and services available to its customers to help them in their daily lives. Its fintech arm and financial Super App e& money partnered with Mastercard to enable payments worldwide via an exclusive prepaid card, offering the flexibility and convenience of using both virtual and physical cards, and becoming the first issuer supported by a telecom operator in the UAE.
evision, the media and entertainment arm of e&, has launched the 24/7 GolfLife channel to broadcast live golf in the region and has acquired exclusive MENA rights to the PGA TOUR, the DP World Tour, the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup, and cricket’s most anticipated event, the TATA Indian Premier League 2023. evision successfully launched OTT platforms in Pakistan with SHOQ TV for PTCL and TWIST TV for Etisalat Egypt by e&. evision also secured a strategic agreement for StarzPlay and e& OpCos with WATCH IT, a leading video-on-demand for Arabic content.
e& enterprise
Leading the digital transformation journey across the business sector, e& enterprise has achieved remarkable milestones by going the extra mile to deliver the best technologies that empower businesses across the region.
The company has launched its Sustainability As-a-Service offering to help businesses in their sustainability journey by partnering with Microsoft to implement the Microsoft Sustainability Manager as a key component of the proposition.
Help AG, the cybersecurity arm of e& enterprise, launched its new SaaS platform UNIFY to integrate with the ever-evolving cybersecurity technology landscape and deliver a seamless, unified customer experience.
e& enterprise IoT & AI joined hands with Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) with an aim to explore the opportunity to develop a commercial model to take MBRSC’s models and predictions to the market also enabling e& enterprise to leverage the space centre’s expertise in AI and predictive models, while the Centre will benefit from the former’s resources and capabilities.
e& capital
The tech investment arm of e& led a pre-series C round raising $10 million for almentor, a leading online video learning platform in Arabic. The proceeds will be used to accelerate almentor’s growth towards its goal of serving ten million learners in the MENA region and use the funds to increase its investment in the B2C segment while expanding into Saudi Arabia.
