Vodafone Qatar Announces Financial Results for 2016

Doha, May 17 (QNA) - Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C. on Tuesday announced its financial results for the twelve months ended 31 March 2016. In its statement, Vodafone showed a net loss of QR465.7 million compared to net loss amounting to QR215.8 million for the same period of the previous year. Loss per share amounted to QR0.55 for the period ended on 31/3/2016 compared to loss per share amounting to QR0.26 for the same period of the previous year. The statement added that total mobile customers stood at 1,548,000, an increase of 7% compared to March 2015. On the other hand, the statement said that HE Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani Al-Thani has decided to step down from his role as the Company's Chairman and as a Board member due to his other work commitments and Rashid Fahad Al Naimi has been appointed as acting Chairman of the Company and will serve for the remaining term of the current Board, pending the appointment of a new Board at the Company's Annual General Assembly. Rashid Fahad Al-Naimi, commented: "The past year has been difficult for the Company with the impact of structural changes in our industry, namely the increasing use of data at the expense of international voice traffic, and sustained price competition, particularly in the prepaid market, severely impacting our revenue performance." "Meanwhile, our cost base has increased in line with the growing scale of our business operations, collectively leading to a reduction in earnings. In light of these results, the Company has performed a review of its cost base to ensure we sustain our margins in the future. As a result, we recently took the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by approximately 10% and write-off various non-performing assets," he said. Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C. ('Vodafone Qatar'), part of one of the world's largest telecommunications group, the Vodafone Group, is the holder of the Second Public Mobile and Fixed Telecommunications Networks and Services License in the State of Qatar. Vodafone Qatar switched on its mobile network on 1 March 2009. Having built a world class converged IP network, Vodafone launched fibre-based consumer and enterprise fixed-line services commercially in October 2012. (QNA)