Etisalat records $827-million hit in India from licence cancellation
10 Feb 2012
The Emirates Telecommunication Corp Ltd (Etisalat) took a $827-million hit in India, after its joint venture in the sub-continent was stripped of its mobile licence following a Supreme Court order.
This comes a day after Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) said it was exiting the joint venture in India.
This came in the wake of the recent Supreme Court order cancelling 21 licences of its Indian JV. Last week, Supreme Court revoked 122 mobile licences that were issued after January 2008.
Etisalat owns 45 per cent in Etisalat DB. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, only a quarter, or 25.4 per cent, of its subscribers are active. Etisalat DB is ranked 14th in a market of 15 players.
"Etisalat's management has decided to recognise an impairment charge in its 2011 consolidated financial statements amounting to an aggregate of Emirati Dirham 3,044 million," the company said in a statement. The net impact of this impairment charge on its consolidated net profit amounted to AED 1,020 million, Etisalat said.
Etisalat said its 2011 net profit fell 23.4 per cent to 5.84 billion dirhams from 7.63 billion dirhams in the year-ago period due to the impairment charge.
.webp)
.webp)
