RIYADH — Zain KSA announced Tuesday significant improvements in its financial results for the first quarter of 2015. The company reported a 27% increase in EBITDA, at SR348 million up from SR275 million in Q4 2014. EBITDA margin rose to 21% in Q1 2015, up from 17% during the previous quarter. Revenues rose 9% to SR1,678 million for the first quarter of 2015, up from SR1,545 million in Q1 2014, and by 6% from SR1,578 million in the previous quarter with a gross margin of 52%. Improving profitability has reduced the net loss for the quarter by 16% to SR257 million, down from SR306 million in the previous quarter, a 19% reduction compared with Q1 2014. Mobile broadband customer numbers soared by 135% in the quarter. Commenting on the results, Eng. Farhan bin Naif Alfaisal Aljarbaa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zain KSA, said “these financial results continue to demonstrate a solid performance during the first quarter of 2015. Quarter on quarter, year on year the positive results of the Company's transformation plan are becoming clearly evident.” He added “I would like to personally thank all of those shareholders who attended our EGM and approved the capital reduction which was an important milestone for the company's transformation plan. I am looking forward to continuing the Company's open and transparent relationship with its shareholders, authorities and the capital market.” Hassan Kabbani, Chief Executive Officer of Zain KSA, said: “This is a record quarter for Zain KSA. Our transformation plan is clearly demonstrating sustained top line growth and sustained improvements in all key financial metrics.” “We continue to experience phenomenal consumer demand for our mobile broadband products and services. Our continued smart investment in improving our customer experience and the capacity, coverage and speed of our network, means that we are ahead of the resultant surge in data traffic.” “We are now finding that Saudi customers who are satisfied with our data services and now using more of our voice services. These customers are finding that Zain's data and voice services are better value for money, with a customer experience exceeding their expectations. In general, our customers report that the overall customer experience they enjoy with Zain KSA is better than they have experienced with other providers. We believe that these findings coupled with our sustained financial improvements show that our strategy is working. A big thanks to the Zain KSA team for their efforts to improve our performance and customer experience each and every day. Of course, none of this would be possible without the trust of more than 10 million customers.” — SG
