Saudi Arabia’s Mobily swings to profit

Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat, or Mobily, which had slashed 27 months of previously-reported earnings by nearly US$1 billion, said on Tuesday it had swung to a profit in the first quarter.

Mobily, an affiliate of the United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat, made a net profit of 16.6 million Saudi riyals in the three months to March 31. This compares with a loss of 44.5m riyals in the prior-year period, according to a bourse statement.

Mobily, which competes with Saudi Telecom and Zain Saudi, reported quarterly revenue of 3.44 billion riyals, versus 3.66bn Saudi riyals a year earlier. In July, Mobily made the last in a series of earnings restatements that in total cut 27 months of profits to March 31, 2015, by 3.63bn riyals.

These adjustments were made to fix accounting errors. In December, Saudi’s market regulator referred a number of suspects to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution over the affair.

Mobily had attributed its woes to the premature ­booking of revenue from wholesale broadband leases and mobile promotional campaigns and it has also made further changes to the way it accounts for some contracts and the depreciation of property and equipment.

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