Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) held its Annual General Assembly Meeting (AGM) at the company’s HQ at Madinat Al Irfan on Sunday, under the chairmanship of Mulhim bin Bashir al Jarf, Chairman of Omantel Board of Directors.
During the meeting, the shareholders approved a proposal to distribute cash dividends to registered shareholders as of March 27, 2022 at the rate of 55 baisas per share.
Omantel recorded a net profit, after adjusting for minority interest, at RO 67.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. Total revenue dipped 4.1 per cent to RO 2.408 billion in 2021, down from RO 2.511 billion in 2020. EBITDA for 2021 was also down 5.5 per cent to RO 970.3 million, from RO 1.026 billion a year earlier.
Mulhim bin Bashir al Jarf, Omantel Chairman said, “Despite the challenging market conditions, increased competition and challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic at the local and international levels, Omantel Group achieved a good financial performance during 2021.”
“Zain Group, in which Omantel has a strategic stake, continued delivering good performance and growing its net profit despite decline in revenues and EBITDA. Zain Group achieved a net profit growth of 2 per cent compared to the same period in 2020. Moreover, the contribution of Omantel’s subsidiaries in the Sultanate of Oman to the Group’s revenues increased during the past year compared to the same period in 2020”, he added.
“The Covid-19 outbreak continues to have a profound impact on the global and local economies as well as the telecom sector in specific. Following the acceleration of vaccination programmes, the expectation of a return to normal is growing and the domestic economy is expected to gradually return back into a growth scenario. While it is hoped that the local economy will gradually return to achieving growth, the increased competition at the local market resulting from the entry of the third mobile operator, as well as cross-border competition through OTTPs, requires us to always be prepared for such changes”, he concluded.
Talal bin Said al Maamari, Omantel Chief Executive Officer, said, “Omantel has implemented its new continues to be our primary tool to optimise value generation for both our customers and shareholders. Shift Gear builds further on the key transformation initiatives started under ‘Omantel 3.0’ and focusses on a number of key business enablers including Omantel's transition to a digital operator, building on the company's position and leveraging the Sultanate's of Oman strategic position as a global communications hub, in addition to exploring new areas of growth from new business opportunities, primarily in the ICT and value added services domain, while at the same time continuing to implement stringent controls in spending to assure the impact of Covid-19 is minimised while continuing to invest in essential strategic domains.
“Customer experience and innovation have been two main areas of focus for Omantel during 2021. We continued to launch several initiatives in this regard, including the launch of 5G for mobile devices, the expansion of the 5G for fixed and mobile networks and building an integrated system for innovation and technology entrepreneurship through the launch of Omantel Innovation Labs, Omantel’s Innovation Oasis and the “E-Dukaan”, the first unmanned store in the Middle East region”, he added.
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