Wednesday 01 / May / 2024
Muscat: Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) held its Annual Ordinary General Meeting (e-AGM) on Saturday, 30 March 2024 through the electronic platform for holding general assemblies of Muscat Clearance and Depository.
The Annual Ordinary General Assembly of the Company, chaired by Mulham bin Basheer Al-Jarf, Chairman of the Board of Directors, in the presence of Board members, auditors, legal advisor, observer of the Financial Services Authority, approved the proposal to distribute cash dividends of 55 baisas per share to registered shareholders on 30th March 2024.
Omantel's Annual Ordinary General Assembly also approved the consideration of the Board of Directors' report on the Company's activities and financial position during the financial year ended 31 December 2023, the company’s Corporate Governance Report and the auditor's report on the Company's audited financial statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2023.
Commenting on this, Mulham bin Basheer Al-Jarf, Chairman of Omantel, said: "Omantel continued to successfully implement its strategy “Shift Gear” despitemarket challenges and increasing competition. Omantel Group was able to improve its financial performance during 2023, achieving significant growth in both revenues and profits, as the Group's revenues were up by 9.7%, while net profit grew by 13.1% compared to 2022".
"The Group continued to grow in the markets in which it operates in through the Kuwaiti Zain Mobile Group, achieving outstanding performance in key important markets such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Sudan" Al Jarf concluded.
Talal bin Said Al Mamari, Chief Executive Officer of Omantel, said: "Omantel was able to deal with market challenges and achieve a remarkable performance during 2023. The domestic operations maintained a positive growth of 7.2% reflecting the Company’s agility in dealing with competitive market conditions as well as operational challenges. Revenues grew from RO 565.5 million in 2022 to RO 606.5 million in 2023."
"Revenue growth was mainly driven by growth in wholesale revenues which increased by R.O 17.2 million and device revenues which increased by R.O 19.3 million. Postpaid mobile revenues and fixed broadband revenue which grew by 10.2% and 4.2% respectively, also contributed to retail revenue growth".
"Omantel's net profit from domestic operations during 2023 was R.O 63.3 million compared to about R.O 85.7 million in 2022. Net profit for the year 2022 included capital gain on the sale of Omantel Towers for R.O 28 million (Net of taxes). Excluding the capital gain from the profit for year 2022, the net profit for year 2023 shows an increase of 9.7% compared to the previous year”.
Al Mamari pointed out that the domestic telecom market growth slowed down during 2023 after posting a notable recovery in 2022 from earlier pandemic shocks. Competitive pressures continued to grow as the 3rd operator launched services in the postpaid mobile segment. This resulted in a reduction in the customer as well as revenue and market share of the existing operators. However, Omantel was able to maintain and further grow its postpaid mobile customer base, which recorded a significant increase during the year as a result of the company's initiatives to enhance customer retention".
Al Mamari said that the company continued to implement its new strategy aimed at improving and generating value for its customers and shareholders and moving Omantel towards a digital future. Over the past three years, we have made remarkable strides, earning recognition for our top-notch digital experiences. As Artificial Intelligence takes centre stage in our strategy, we are exploring its potential to enhance customer offerings and streamline operations, marking the start of a transformative journey from a telecom operator to a technology company. As part of this strategic move, Omantel embarked on several high-profile international partnerships in emerging domains such as Artificial Intelligence, Cloudification and digital transformation of our services portfolio. Our collaborations with Huawei, AWS and Google are some of the fresh examples of our initiatives in this direction".
With regard to social responsibility, Omantel CEO said: "Omantel focused in its social responsibility initiatives during 2023 on providing support to the most needy segments in the society and preserving the environment. Omantel launched several initiatives and provided support to a number of institutions and programs. Among the most important initiatives is the allocation of 20% of the social responsibility budget to support the efforts and activities of the Oman Charitable Authority, the maintenance and renovation of houses of the deserving families in cooperation with Dar Al Atta'a Association in addition to supporting several initiatives covering cancer patients and “Fak Kurbah” in collaboration with Omani Lawyers Association.
The Company also embarked on a number of initiatives in the education and innovation domain such as the support extended to the Applied Research Fund, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Center, Omantel Innovation Corner, the Student Scholarship Fund, the IT and Coding Curriculum in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, in addition to funding other initiatives and programs".
Omantel’s AGM also approved the other items listed on the meeting agenda, the most important of which is approving the allocation of R.O 750,000 for community service for the year 2024, appointing an auditor for the financial year ending 31/12/2024 and determining their fees, in addition to approving the Board of Directors' remuneration for the financial year ending on 31/12/2023.
