VIVA holds its Annual General Meeting

Kuwait Telecommunications Company (VIVA),today held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Jumeirah Hotel and approved the company’s audited financial results for the year ended 31 December 2014.

Mr. Adel Al Roumi, Chairman of the Board, said: “2014 was a major milestone for the company after it was successfully listed on the Kuwait stock Exchange, where investors trust in the company was reflected on the share price, which resulted in a return higher than 600% at the inception of the company. Post listing, the company continued to build itself, to fulfill its promise to its stakeholders.”

"Our strong performance in 2014 reflects our consistent hard work and dedication in an exceptionally competitive market. During the year we delivered a solid performance with revenues of KD 239 million, which reflects strong revenue growth of 31 %, when compared to the year before. This has resulted in a net profit of KD 40.3 million, (earnings per share of 81 fils) in comparison to net profit of KD 24.2 million in 2013, (earnings per share of 49 fils). These results illustrate our continued positive momentum, which enables us to achieve growth in shareholder equity at 421%.”

"These excellent results represent a great leap in the company's development, and reflect the many other record breaking achievements VIVA consistently delivered over course of the year," concluded Mr. Al Roumi.

Eng. Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Badran, VIVA's Chief Executive Officer said: "VIVA is now the second largest telecom operator in terms of revenues with 32% of the total revenues in the Kuwaiti telecom market in 2014, with a customer base of 2.4 million, and network coverage of more than 99% of Kuwait’s residential areas and other geographically equipped areas. As we continued to invest in our infrastructure and new technologies that differentiate our company from the competition, VIVA was able to achieve growth in operating income before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), by 72% in 2014 when compared to 2013.”

“In response to the increase in our customer base, we also expanded our commercial presence across Kuwait to 63 outlets by the end of 2014, to be closer to our customers and to meet the growing demand for our products and services.  Our success and achievements were also recognized by our industry peers in 2014 as we won several awards for excellence, including the 'Best 4G Package' award at the 2nd Annual Teknotel Awards, the 'Best Mobile Operator' Award from Service Hero, the ‘Editor's Choice Award' from Network World Middle East, the ‘Best Speech Analytics Implementation’ from INSIGHTS - Middle East Call Centre Awards 2014, and last but not least, the ‘Best Middle Eastern Operator’ at the 2014 Telecom Review Summit Awards.”

"A consistently important aspect is investing in our human capital, and our commitment to the government's Kuwaitization program remains one of the main pillars of our strategy.  As a result of this, 66% of our workforce is now Kuwaiti, which is comparatively high when compared to other major companies in the private sector in Kuwait. In addition to our commercial operations, we have a long-standing commitment to supporting the local community. We are consistently involved in the development of many areas in Kuwait's society, including social, health, sports and education."

Mr Al-Badran concluded: "I would like to express my appreciation to the whole VIVA family, including all our employees, our business partners, customers and shareholders, to whom we owe our success." 

Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Qatie, Chief Financial Officer said: "VIVA’s performance has exceeded all expectations in terms of attracting more customers and achieving revenues, which enhanced the financial performance of the company. This reflected positively on the record-breaking growth of VIVA's revenues and profits. VIVA’s net profit growth reached 66% during 2014 when compared to 2013.” He added: “We will continue the hard work in order to achieve further growth and success next year.”

In this context, the representative from the Sharia committee explained that after studying the VIVA’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2014, the shareholders of the company are not required to fulfill Zakat legitimacy.

During the AGM, VIVA’s shareholders elected a new board of directors. The new board comprises of seven members represented by: Saudi Telecommunications Company, Kuwait Investment Authority, Public Institution for Social Security, Zakat House, STC Gulf Holding Investment, STC Gulf Holding Investment 1, and STC Gulf Holding Investment 3.

The AGM’s attendance represented 55.37% of the number of ordinary shares of the company.