Profits of Telecom Egypt, achieved from its 48.9 percent stake in Vodafone Egypt, exceeded LE 550 million over the first nine months of this year, said Chairman of Egypt Telecom Akil Bashir on Thursday. Bashir told reporters that total revenues of Telecom Egypt surged 7.9 percent to LE 6.9 billion over the first nine months of 2006 compared with a year earlier. The increase in revenues was due to growth in the number of fixed-line subscribers by 4.7 percent to LE 10.7 million. He pointed out that the 17 percent decline in the company's net profits to LE 1.5 billion was due to the increase in provisions and higher cost of the average fixed-line installation to LE 4,000 from LE 2,500 as a result of increasing copper prices (the main component of cables) as well as exchange price variations. The nine months results for Telecom Egypt posted on Thursday show a drop in the company's capital spending by 36 percent to LE 1.2 billion with earnings per share down to LE 0.89 compared with LE 1.07 a year earlier. Meanwhile, the number of subscribers at the company's broadband Internet operation TE Data soared to 68,600 subscribers in the January to September 2006 period compared with 21,700 a year ago.
