Batelco will record stronger results in the last quarter of
2010 than in the third quarter, according to the firm’s CEO.
The Bahraini incumbent posted a 24 percent drop in
third-quarter net profits due to lower revenues in its home market and costs
associated with its business start-up in India.
“We expect Q4 to be a little bit better than Q3 because our
overseas subsidiaries are posting better results,” Batelco Group CEO Peter
Kaliaropoulos told Arabian Business.
“It’s not that we’re not executing well, but with the
current environment and such high levels of saturation and a new entrant,
customers for the first six months at least will try and taste what that new
entrant will offer them. Eventually they’ll come back, because if you look at
our numbers in Q3, we grew our customers in Bahrain, despite the entrance of
[third mobile operator] VIVA.”
But the CEO said that revenue growth in the Bahraini market
was “at best flat” due to the heavy levels of competition forcing erosion on
prices.
Mobile penetration in Bahrain stands at around 160 percent,
with broadband penetration at up to 115 percent. The Gulf state has the highest
ratio of internet users per capita in the MENA region.
Kaliaropoulos also admitted that Batelco would be affected
by number portability – which is being introduced in Bahrain in the next six
months or so – although this would not hurt its mobile business.
“On the business side with fixed lines, that market never
had a choice – it was only Batelco fixed lines or no-one else,” he said.
“So we expect there will be some movement – not a major
impact – but don’t forget they will move to another licensed operator who is a
wholesale customer of Batelco. We’re not losing the customer completely, but we
are losing some of the margin.”
The CEO said that the impact would only be seen around the
last quarter of 2011, and that it would not be material in Batelco’s results
for next year.
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