By Hamed Mahmoud
Telecom Egypt recorded 4.9 billion Egyptian pounds ($312.7 million) in net income in 2020, up 10 per cent year-on-year and marking the landline monopoly’s largest bottom line to date, the company said in its earnings release. Consolidated revenue grew 24 per cent y-o-y, reaching 31.9 billion per cent, on the back of a 39 per cent increase in data revenues and a doubling of cable projects revenue.
The company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) hiked by 91 per cent to 11.133 billion pounds in 2020 from 5.834 billion pounds in 2019. The earnings per share (EPS) settled at 2.35 pounds during 2020, versus 2.1 pounds in 2019. As for standalone business, the telecom operator achieved net profits of 2.16 billion pounds last year, down from 5.436 billion pounds in 2019.
Adel Hamed, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “This year’s results reflect Telecom Egypt’s fortitude and resilience throughout 2020 and its outstanding ability to accommodate the market’s sudden shift towards digitisation during the Covid-19 outbreak. Our overall operational performance has led to a strong full year EBITDA margin of 35%, an all-time high net profit of EGP 4.9bn, and an operating cash flow of EGP 8.3bn, thanks to our strong top line performance and improved revenue mix.