Etisalat Shares Rise After Meeting Profit Estimates

By Matthew Brown

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Emirates Telecommunications Corp. shares rose as much as 5.1 percent in Abu Dhabi after earnings at the United Arab Emirates' largest telephone company met analysts' expectations.

Etisalat added 3.7 percent to close at 15.4 dirhams, after having risen as high as 15.6 dirhams in Abu Dhabi today. The Abu Dhabi Exchange General Index advanced 2.4 percent.

Etisalat's third-quarter net income increased 19 percent to 2.1 billion dirhams ($572 million), the company said yesterday, meeting the expectations of Shuaa Capital PJSC telecom analyst Simon Simonian, who has a ``buy'' rating on the shares with a target price of 26.2 dirhams.

``I'm really happy with the numbers,'' Simonian said in a telephone interview today. ``The subscriber numbers for the U.A.E. were particularly good, so at these levels the stock is very attractive.''

Etisalat's mobile-phone subscribers in the U.A.E. increased 11 percent to 7.05 million from the year-earlier period, the company said. Fixed-line subscribers now stand at 1.36 million and Internet subscribers at 1.08 million.

``They are defending their market share, and as the incumbent they have the bigger, higher-spending customers,'' Simonian said.

The company operates in 18 nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East with total populations of about 1.6 billion.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Brown in Dubai at mbrown42@bloomberg.net