00:00We're talking about a big net profit jump, a beat versus expectations.
00:04I also see revenue as well as up almost 9% year on year.
00:09What are the factors driving this jump in both revenue and bottom line?
00:14And can the momentum actually continue into 2026?
00:19Good morning, Jumana. Great to be with you today.
00:22I think it's in one word, disciplined execution.
00:26I mean, we've been delivering, as you said, 8.7% revenue growth, 13.4% EBITDA growth, expanding our margin by 1.9 points, 16.8% net profit growth, and 14.4% free cash flow growth,
00:44while at the same time continuing to fund growth and adjacencies to our core business, which is the telecom, and returning money to the shareholders.
00:55This is not a one-off. It's a continuation of several years where we've been delivering this profitable growth.
01:03It reflects the strength of our core connectivity business and the scaling of the dependencies that we have.
01:11Looking at your subscriber numbers, mobile subscribers have increased to 9.7 million versus 8.9 million at the end of 2024.
01:23What is your strategy to keep that growth going, especially in an environment that's become quite competitive in your space,
01:31and where also you could say that we're getting to a point of perhaps saturation maybe in mobile and fixed networks?
01:38I would not call it saturation. I would frame it more as a very mature market.
01:46The UAE is extremely advanced and mature. We have a penetration more than 200% when we talk about mobile, 99% when we talk about fiber.
01:56However, we're in an environment where population continue growing, in an environment where tourism is extremely active,
02:03and we also have been gaining market share through innovative offers, through stimulation of usage, and through customer value management.
02:15All of these factors will continue driving our growth despite the fact of this level of maturity in our market.
02:22Yeah. Data centers, very topical. I'm curious to see what plans you have in that space and what sort of you envisage in terms of capacity build out there.
02:34This data center is a sector where we believe there is a huge potential, in particular when we talk about sovereign and government and large corporate offers.
02:48We were well positioned to act into this sector. We have access to land, we have access to energy, we have access to capital.
02:54This is an area of growth, and 2025 has been a year where we have engaged strongly from a capital deployment perspective, as you have seen our CAPEX increase slightly in terms of capital intensity.
03:08This is an area where we will continue developing and is one of our priorities outside the core business because of its importance, the synergies that it brings to our telecom business,
03:17and its importance to build the backbone for the country in terms of infrastructure and digital infrastructure.
03:24Yeah. Do you think telecom operators stand to benefit from the huge amount of interest in data centers and sort of the outlook for demand there?
03:36Look, I think it depends on each country. It depends on each player. As far as we're concerned, we believe this is an area where we have differentiating factor, we have a role to play,
03:47and we've been active into the sector since 2017. So it's not something new to us, and it's not necessarily the AI hype that is driving us there. I think the AI is catalyzing and accelerating further the demand that we're here to serve.
04:04Yeah. Well, the last time we spoke, I think you had just completed your secondary sale offering. And those of you, obviously, at the time that it would bring liquidity into the stock, but also potentially open up the MSCI inclusion. Has there been any updates on that front?
04:23Absolutely. I think the transaction has been extremely successful, and it achieved the main objectives. The first one being the increase of the free flow. The second one is the increase of the liquidity that you've talked about.
04:36The third is the diversification of the shareholder base, where we have an extremely high level of attraction from international investors. As you know, the MSCI is a process that takes four consecutive quarters.
04:51So we've been satisfying the main criteria of the MSCI for two consecutive quarters for now, and we continue working in order to fulfill the criteria for the next two consecutive quarters.
05:05So this is something that will come out hopefully at the end of Q2 2026.
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