du announced its financial results for the full year and the fourth quarter of 2011, reflecting continued growth and further customer additions.  The company also announced that it is proposing its first dividend payment to shareholders.

Highlights for the full year 2011:

• Revenues of AED 8.9 billion achieved; a 25.2% increase versus 2010 (AED 7.1 billion).
• EBITDA  increased 44.6% to AED 2.9 billion versus 2010 (AED 2.0 billion).
• Net profit before royalty grew by 47.8% year on year to AED 1.8 billion versus 2010 (AED 1.2 billion).
• Net profit after royalty stood at AED 1.1 billion up from AED 1.0 billion in 2010, reflecting the increased royalty payable to the UAE Federal Government for the year ended 31 December 2011 comprising of 15% of net profit and 5% of total company revenues.
• This resulted in a royalty payment of AED 715 million, compared to AED 184 million for 2010, equating to 15% of net profit.
• Pro Forma earnings per share increased 60% from AED 0.15 to AED 0.24 Free Cash Flow reached AED 1.4 billion up from AED 36 million in 2010.

Ahmad Bin Byat, Chairman of du, said: "As we celebrate our fifth year of operation, I am pleased to report very strong financial performance and the continuation of our company’s strong growth trajectory.  Our strong financial performance during 2011 has led to the recommendation by the Board of Directors to propose our first cash dividend to shareholders of 15 fils per share. The proposed dividend has been carefully considered, ensuring we can continue to invest in our people, network, systems, products and services to deliver consistent value to our customers and shareholders. We believe this dividend proposal is an important step forward in shareholder value creation and sets the right basis for future dividend growth.”

“The decision to pay dividends celebrates the position that we have built in the market.  By the end of 2011 we served more than 46% of the UAE mobile market according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, an enviable achievement in just five years. Today, more than five million people across the Emirates actively use our services. Despite continued global economic uncertainty throughout the last three years, we have benefited  from the stability and economic momentum of the UAE, which combined with the capabilities we have built in offering innovative and attractive customer propositions, and doing so with operational efficiency, has resulted in an even greater number of customers placing their trust in us, which has in turn led to very strong financial performance,” added Bib Byat. “We have maintained a focus throughout on our responsibility for Emiratisation and we have dramatically increased the number of Emiratis working in our company: in 2011, Emiratis represented 28% of our workforce significantly, up from 23% in 2010, with 39% in higher management positions.  We also sought to further extend job opportunities to UAE nationals across the UAE and the opening of our new, purpose-built customer care centre in Fujairah, managed and staffed entirely by Emiratis, is a prime example of these initiatives.”

Osman Sultan, du’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “I am once again proud to report we have delivered another strong year of growth and excellent financial performance.  In 2011, we maintained one of the highest growth rates for the past three years in the entire region, and we have continued to gain market share.  We believe this continued growth can be partially attributed to the successes we have had in improving the customer experience, which has been a significant focus in 2011 and will continue to remain so. Growth in data revenue has also become a significant contributor.  We expect this to become even more prominent, based on rapid growth in the penetration of smartphones.”

“Our home services business, including fixed telephony, high-speed broadband, and IPTV, today limited to the geographical areas where we have deployed our own world-class fibre infrastructure, continues to grow alongside the on-going development of the UAE economy and is well-positioned to benefit from the infrastructure sharing agreement announced by the TRA.  We look forward with optimism and determination to expanding and offering our state-of-the-art value proposition nationwide as a result of this development. Throughout the year we worked hard to continue streamlining processes and reinforcing operational and financial controls. This enabled us to better manage our overheads and capital expenditure, leading to healthy levels of profitability and cash generation in 2011.  We continued to invest in our capabilities in 2011, adding more than 1,275 new base station sites, further improving our network coverage.  Our data network has also been greatly improved, particularly in our 3G coverage, as we see this as a major stream of future revenue growth,” added Sultan.

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