Zain Group posts gains in first half of 2016

Zain Group, a Kuwait-based telecommunications company that operates in the Middle East and Africa, announced its consolidated financial results for the first six months of 2016, a period during which Zain Group served 45.2 million consumers.
 
“It is pleasing to report growth in several of our key financial metrics for the second quarter and six-month 2016 periods given that Zain Group is exposed to conflict zones and currency fluctuations that continue to impact the growth potential of our business,” Asaad Al Banwan, chairman of the board of Zain Group, said.
 
The company generated revenues of $1.83 billion while recording a net income of $272 million for the first half of 2016. While its overall revenue was down 2 percent against last year’s numbers, Zain Group grew its net income and EBITDA by 14 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
 
A major focus for the company for the first half of the year was leveraging 4G networks. With this strategy, Zain Group generated a 7 percent increase in group consolidated data revenues.
 
“The effectiveness of our data monetization initiatives and cost optimization drive in such challenging conditions across several of our key markets has been reflected in our improved results for the second quarter and six-month periods of 2016, outperforming our peers across many of our country operations,” Scott Gegenheimer, Zain Group CEO, said. “We are committed to a growth strategy in which we are successfully leveraging our state-of-the-art 4G infrastructure and implementing numerous data monetization initiatives.”