The Group Chairman said that the Q1 results was marked by continued market leadership in the Kingdom of Bahrain, its home market, and solid contributions from overseas markets especially from Jordan and Kuwait.
“During the first quarter of 2012, we continued to focus our efforts on maximising the performance of our investments overseas whilst maintaining market leadership in the Kingdom of Bahrain. In line with the guidance that we provided at the outset of the year, our results for the quarter reflected the continued impact of significant competition in Bahrain and in the highly competitive environments across the MENA markets in which we operate. We are nevertheless pleased with the ability of the Group companies to continue to deliver solid results, despite challenging operating environments, as evidenced by strong cash flow generation during the period and the overall strength of our balance sheet. Having ended the quarter with significant cash balances despite significant one-off capital expenditures, we continue to be in a strong position to deploy our resources towards further strengthening our existing operations and making investments in the growth and expansion of the Group, which is a key priority in 2012 as we work to build scale and deliver even greater value for customers and shareholders,” Batelco Chairman, Shaikh Hamad bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, while commenting of Group’s first quarter 2012 results following a board meeting said.
“Operationally, we are pleased with the effective execution of our strategy during the first quarter. It is our aim to retain mobile, broadband and enterprise customers in Bahrain, which we’ve done a great job of. It is also a priority to further build our subscriber base overseas. With the sale of STel which was announced in February 2012, the Group’s adjusted subscriber base now stands at some 6.9 million users across six markets. We are focused on ensuring that our operations in each of these markets remain as competitive as possible whilst also working to identify new ways to grow and add customers – both organically and through acquisitions – in existing territories and in others that present a compelling opportunity,” Group CEO, Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa, said.
“Despite the aggressive market competition in Bahrain, we are delighted with Batelco’s ability to have retained its market leadership during the first quarter of 2012. We have worked hard to ensure that our customers in Bahrain enjoy the most reliable fixed and wireless connectivity and great customer care – there is no better measure of our success in implementing our strategy than this. We are especially gratified that our high value post-paid individual and business subscribers continue to remain loyal to the Batelco brand. They are ultimately our gauge for how innovative and responsive we are being and the results for the first quarter highlight that our efforts in protecting our market position through excellence in customer care are paying off,” the Group CEO explained.
“As we’ve long said, our ability to continue to innovate both from a technology and services standpoint continues to define our success. During the quarter, our teams worked hard to maintain customer loyalty through the delivery of new innovations in both of these areas,” added Shaikh Mohamed.
“Our focus is firmly on growing the Group’s customer base and increasing our scale across the MENA region. We are also continuing to look at our existing operations and finding synergies and ways to further strengthen our performance and derive even greater value from our assets. With a sound strategy and fundamentals across our businesses and a solid financial base from which to work, we are in a strong position to deliver on both of these fronts in the months ahead,” Shaikh Mohamed, said.