Qatar Telecommunications Co's posted a 45 percent drop in second-quarter net profit, after the year-ago quarter was boosted by a one-time gain. Net profit fell to 571 million riyals ($157 million) from 1,044 million riyals a year earlier, Qtel said. An analyst had forecast net profit of 699 million riyals.
Qtel reiterated its revenue forecast for the year of 25.2 billion to 26.4 billion riyals. Profit for the year-ago quarter included a 343 million riyal gain after its Kuwait business, National Mobile Telecommunications (Wataniya), won a court ruling reversing provisions it had previously set aside. The company made a net profit of 1.7 billion riyals for the first half of the year, compared with 1.6 billion riyals for the first half of 2009.
Qtel, which operates in 17 countries, has expanded rapidly abroad to mitigate the loss of its monopoly after Britain's Vodafone entered the Qatari market. Shares of Qtel closed 0.4 percent lower at 168 riyals before the results were announced on Sunday.