Telecom Zain Saudi reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday, beating estimates as revenue increased.
The company has yet to make a quarterly profit since launching services in 2008 and has battled to compete against better-resourced rivals Saudi Telecom Co (STC) and Etihad Etisalat (Mobily).
Zain Saudi, 37-percent owned by Kuwait's Zain, made a net loss of 135 million riyals ($36.00 million) in the three months to December 31, according to a bourse statement. This compares with a net loss of 291 million riyals in the prior-year period. Four analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast Zain Saudi would make a quarterly net loss of 145.9 million riyals. Quarterly revenue of 1.8 billion riyals was up from the 1.7 billion riyals recorded in the same period a year ago. Zain Saudi's overall subscriber base fell 12 percent year on year to 10.9 million subscribers as of December 31, 2016, the statement said.