00:00Talk us through some of the drivers of the momentum behind the earnings this year.
00:06Thank you for having me.
00:07And again, it's a pleasure to be here, especially on the back of the strong results we're announcing.
00:12As you mentioned, this is a third record year in a row for us.
00:17So I think it proves the solidity of our strategy.
00:21We've delivered nearly 5% growth on EBITDA, 6% growth on the top line,
00:27and a full 12% growth in terms of net profit, just 3.9 billion qatari riyals.
00:36And this also translates to our shareholder with an increase in dividends by a full 15% at 0.75
00:44dirhams per shares,
00:47which are all record metrics in the history of the group.
00:50And these are not one horse's pony.
00:53We've been doing this year after year now.
00:55So we're very proud of our results, our discipline, and I think our strategy is paying off.
01:02Yeah.
01:02Okay.
01:03So let me ask you, you know, globally, telecom, traditional telecom revenues have been under pressure.
01:09Where are you seeing real pricing power in this environment?
01:13I think this is the exceptional mix of Oridu.
01:18We have three core markets in the GCC, which provides very strong foundational stability.
01:24And this is Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait.
01:26These are more mature markets, reasonable growth in the single digits,
01:32but with very robust underlying economies, pegged currencies.
01:36And we also have our growth engines, which lie within Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, and Indonesia,
01:43which all of these markets have been growing in the mid-teen.
01:47And these are really the driver of growth for Oridu going forward.
01:53You know, you've been reshaping the portfolio in recent years, cutting down on some businesses,
01:58making some disposals.
02:00Would you say that the restructuring is mostly behind you now?
02:04In terms of restructuring, I think it's behind us for nearly three years now,
02:08since we exited Myanmar, merged, and consolidated our leadership position in Indonesia.
02:13But the reshaping of Oridu from a traditional telco into a digital infrastructure company,
02:21this is still on tracks and going on.
02:23As you know, we carved out our data center business a couple of years ago, Sintis,
02:28which its EBITDA has grown by 141% this year.
02:32We've also just announced inorganic growth with the acquisition of Qdata,
02:37an additional 12.5 megawatts in Qatar.
02:40This consolidates our position as the leading data center provider in Qatar.
02:45We've carved out our fintech business with Oridu Money and Walletty,
02:49which is also growing very fast.
02:52This year was a record $7.2 billion of total transactions on our platform
02:57and a total market share of nearly 22.5% in terms of the remittance markets.
03:03So our restructuring of our core telco portfolio is done.
03:08And future-proofing the business with these new silos in the infrastructure of business is ongoing,
03:15and we're accelerating and deploying more CapEx into that.
03:20So since you mentioned data centers, I'm just curious to see how big of domestic scale you are envisioning.
03:29So we've announced a target of growing the Sintis platform by 2030 to 120 megawatts.
03:36When we started our journey, we were barely at 22 megawatts.
03:41We're already at 30 megawatts now.
03:43And we're probably sure that we'll exceed our target in terms of size,
03:49but also of speed quite consistently, because we're seeing a very strong demand pipeline.
03:56Not just in Qatar, we're seeing demand in our footprints in Kuwait, in Tunisia, in Iraq.
04:03As you know, the region is a major hub, first for all the transit of data between Europe and Asia,
04:10but also the whole region is becoming a powerhouse in terms of the digital economy and AI.
04:17And this requires a lot of assets on the ground.
04:20We have the most diversified footprint in terms of geographic footprint.
04:24So that puts us in an ideal position to capture that growth.
04:29Yeah, there are reports that came out not so long ago suggesting that Syria is also perhaps a geography of
04:36focus for you.
04:37Are you eyeing up a potential opportunity there?
04:42We have a very strong balance sheet.
04:44As you know, we're at 0.4 times net debt to EBITDA.
04:48So that puts us in an exceptional position for any inorganic growth opportunities.
04:53We've been constantly on the lookout for acquisition or in our core business, telco,
04:59or within our new adjacencies, which is data center, fintech, and fiber connectivity.
05:07Despite that, we're extremely disciplined.
05:10Of course, our area of credit collection is the MENA region as a whole,
05:15because this is where we have a very strong competitive angle.
05:19So we're looking at a number of opportunities.
05:22When they're materialized, and we have an official announcement,
05:25I'll be happy to be back here with you.
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