DUBAI: Etisalat reported a 45 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday as the United Arab Emirates firm's acquisition of a majority stake in Maroc Telecom bolstered its bottom line, but it missed analysts' forecasts.
The former telecommunications monopoly, which operates in 19 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made a net profit of 2.10 billion dirhams ($572 million) in the three months to Dec. 31.
This compares with a profit of 1.45 billion dirhams in the year-earlier period.
Three analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast Etisalat, the Gulf's second biggest telecommunications operator by market value, would make a quarterly profit of 2.43 billion dirhams.
The company proposed to pay a 0.35 dirham per share cash dividend for the second half of 2014, matching its dividend for the year-ago period. For all of 2014, it would pay 0.70 dirham per share and 10 percent in bonus shares.
It made an annual net profit of 8.9 billion dirhams, up from 7.1 billion dirhams in 2013.
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