CAIRO, March 14 (Reuters) - Telecom Egypt, the country's landline monopoly, made a 9.7 percent rise in net profit to 3.06 billion Egyptian pounds ($559 million) in 2009, the firm said in an announcement published in Monday's edition of al-Ahram newspaper.
The firm said revenue for the year was 9.96 billion pounds, versus 10.12 billion in 2008. It made a profit of 2.79 billion pounds in 2008.
The figures provided equate to a fourth-quarter net profit of 481 million pounds on revenue of 2.2 billion pounds, according to Reuters calculations.
A Reuters poll of nine analysts predicted quarterly profit in a wide range between 434 million and 875 million pounds, on revenue between 2.4 billion and 2.7 billion pounds.
The firm has struggled against a tide of mobile substitution -- customers eschewing land-line phones in favour of competitively priced mobile offers -- and cut off some 2 million land-lines earlier in the year as it tightened its credit policy to reduce debt exposure.
Telecom Egypt owns a 45 percent stake in Vodafone's unit Vodafone Egypt, which added revenue of 1.41 billion pounds in the year, compared to 1.31 billion in 2008.
(Reporting and writing by Alastair Sharp and Patrick Werr; editing by Gunna Dickson)
($1 = 5.473 Egyptian pounds) Keywords: TELECOMEGYPT/ (alastair.sharp@reuters.com; Cairo newsroom +20 2 2578 3290; Reuters Messaging: alastair.sharp.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
The firm said revenue for the year was 9.96 billion pounds, versus 10.12 billion in 2008. It made a profit of 2.79 billion pounds in 2008.
The figures provided equate to a fourth-quarter net profit of 481 million pounds on revenue of 2.2 billion pounds, according to Reuters calculations.
A Reuters poll of nine analysts predicted quarterly profit in a wide range between 434 million and 875 million pounds, on revenue between 2.4 billion and 2.7 billion pounds.
The firm has struggled against a tide of mobile substitution -- customers eschewing land-line phones in favour of competitively priced mobile offers -- and cut off some 2 million land-lines earlier in the year as it tightened its credit policy to reduce debt exposure.
Telecom Egypt owns a 45 percent stake in Vodafone's unit Vodafone Egypt, which added revenue of 1.41 billion pounds in the year, compared to 1.31 billion in 2008.
(Reporting and writing by Alastair Sharp and Patrick Werr; editing by Gunna Dickson)
($1 = 5.473 Egyptian pounds) Keywords: TELECOMEGYPT/ (alastair.sharp@reuters.com; Cairo newsroom +20 2 2578 3290; Reuters Messaging: alastair.sharp.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.