Zain's Saudi Arabia subsidiary has reported revenues of US$135 million in 2008, with active customer numbers totaling 2.01 million. The company, which only lauched services on August 26th, 2008 has secured a market share of 7%, based on Zain estimates.
In addition, the company announces a gross profit of US$4.27 million, and a net loss for the period of US$608 million, reflecting only 4 months of revenue, yet 18 months of start up and operating costs inclusive of the Initial Public Offering and the launch / preliminary branding campaigns which amounted US$112 million.
The Chairman of Zain in Saudi Arabia, HRH Prince Hussam Bin Saud Abdul Aziz commented, "These excellent results in such a short time reflect both the prudent strategy of the management team in coordination with Zain Group worldwide and the concerted efforts of all Zain personnel in providing Saudi customers with a wonderful range of products and services complemented by a modern and super efficient network that is the envy of our competitors."
The network is currently capable of serving of 5 million customers, thus not suffering from congestion problems.
On his part Dr Saad Al Barrak, Zain Group CEO noted, "On entry into this promising market, we made a commitment to the Saudi consumer that they will receive world-class offerings, one that we have fulfilled. Their (2 million of them) response was to join the Zain mobile family resulting in our revenue targets for 2008 being exceeded by an outstanding 27% to the delight of all our stakeholders."
Zain was successful in attaining the 3rd GSM licence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2007 for an investment of US$6.1 billion. In February 2008 the company completed its IPO that saw 8.5 million subscribers request for their share of the 700 million shares (50% of the company's capital) on offer raising US$1.87 billion.
Dr Alahmadi concluded, said "Our achievement of attaining a 7% market share in 4 months is recognition by Saudi consumers of the Zain brand and its accompanying benefits such as the One Network allowing mobile telephony free of roaming charges for Zain travelling customers. The promising results to date are just the beginning of better things to come and we will be relentless in enhancing our product offerings attracting more customers to the wonderful world of Zain."
Posted to the site on 23rd February 2009
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