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DUBAI / Reuters
Zain, Kuwait’s biggest telecommunications operator by subscribers, reported a 9 percent year-on-year fall in first-quarter profit on Sunday, extending an earnings slump as foreign exchange losses increased.
The former monopoly, which operates in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa, made a net profit of 37 million dinars ($123 million) in the three months to March 31.
Analysts at EFG Hermes and SICO Bahrain had forecast Zain would make a quarterly profit of 39.11 million dinars and 38.4 million dinars
respectively.
The firm had posted falling profits in six of the preceding seven quarters as tougher domestic competition, service interruptions and higher costs due to conflict in Iraq, and foreign exchange volatility weighed on the bottom line.