Zain Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom's newest mobile phone operator, posted its lowest quarterly loss since it started operations two years ago after revenues doubled on higher customers. The firm, 25-percent owned by Kuwait's Zain, made a net loss of SR632 million ($168.5 million) in the second quarter, down from SR857 million a year earlier, it said in a statement. The firm said it has reached during the second quarter a breakeven point on core earnings, or EBITDA, ahead of an initial third-quarter deadline. Revenues rose to SR1.45 billion during the period, up from SR702 million a year earlier and SR1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2010. “The reason of the decrease in the second-quarter's net loss is the wider customer base which rose noticeably during the second quarter, exceeding 7 million customers,” Saad Al-Barrak, Zain Saudi's chief executive said. “The gross profit margin rose to 42 percent against 19 percent for the same period in the previous year,” he said. Shares in the mobile phone firm have lost 67 percent since it started commercial operations in August 2008.
