BoD recommends 30 fils cash dividends

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 8: Kuwait Telecommunications Company (stc), a world-class digital leader providing innovative services and platforms to customers and enabling the digital transformation in Kuwait, announced its financial results for the financial year ended 31 December 2022, highlighting the most significant achievements, financial and operational performance in addition to the social initiatives taken by the company during 2022.

Commenting on the announcements of these results, Dr. Mahmoud Ahmed Abdulrahman, stc’s Chairman, stated: “stc has witnessed a number of achievements during 2022 in terms of expanding the Company’s operating model, supporting the digital transformation strategy and adding value to its shareholders. The rapid development of the telecommunications sector showed stc’s flexibility in driving further progress and accelerate the digital transformation process aimed at enabling the Company to capture all the available business opportunities to achieve the growth in its operating and financial results. Driven by the ever-growing and continuous reliance on digitization and global networking in various sectors, stc ensured providing the telecommunications and ICT services as one of the key pillars that the Company has followed throughout the previous years, in order to achieve its corporate strategy focused on business expansion, especially in the enterprise sector. This has also supported stc to enhance its internal capabilities and increase its market share through enriching customer experience and relying on its solid infrastructure.”

Commenting on the company's financial position as at 31 December 2022 Dr. Mahmoud, stated: "stc’s total assets reached KD 424.4 mn by the end of December 2022, while total shareholders' equity increased by 2% reaching KD 241.4 mn. Moreover, stc has a strong solvency position among its peers in the Middle East.”

The Board of Directors has recommended distributing cash dividends of 30 fils per share representing 30% of the share nominal value for the year ended 2022, subject to the approval of the Ordinary General Assembly of the company. This decision was based on stc’s confidence in the continuous advancements of its operations, the robustness of its financial position, and the strength of its cash flows.”
Dr. Abdulrahman also noted that stc has strengthened its role with regard to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in 2022, In line with its institutional values through a series of campaigns and initiatives, stc aims to contribute effectively and positively to support the development of the State of Kuwait and to raise awareness about important issues in society, in cooperation with both government and private sectors. The company’s Corporate Social Responsibility program for this year has a strong emphasis on environmental, social and governance foundations, with stc’s eager to grow on those aspects in 2022. Accordingly, stc’s working teams assure compliance with the latest trends towards adhering and evaluating the implementation of the ESG factors to protect Company’s stakeholders, manage its social capital, preserve the natural resources and encourage recycling. As a pioneer in Kuwait’s telecom, information technology and digital solutions sector, stc will continue to contribute through its rich, diverse, and widespread program with the sole objective of creating a positive and sustainable impact in the local community.

Hence, as a pioneer in Kuwait’s telecom and digital solutions sector, stc will continue to contribute through its rich, diverse, and widespread program with the sole objective of creating a positive and sustainable impact in the local community. This approach falls in line with stc’s vision to back and support the community by implementing initiatives and events that align with its robust social responsibility framework.

Commenting on stc’s achievements in 2022, Eng. Maziad Alharbi, stc’s CEO stated: “stc’s robust results during the financial year ended in December 2022 demonstrated the successful implementation of its corporate strategy with all the operational and financial KPIs adopted. This was the key factor behind reaching stc’s best results aimed at exceeding the aspiration of our customer’s in addition to placing stc amongst the leading companies for supporting the digital transformation process and providing integrated technical solutions with a value added to the traditional telecommunications sector. This is by virtue of stc’s most advanced 5G network and well-established infrastructure that the Company had heavily invested in to enable the Company to deliver the best integrated technical and database solutions that target and fulfill the needs of all of our customers.

In conjunction with stc’s eagerness to maintain its leadership in the telecommunications sector, sustain its strong position and enrich its reputation within one of the most competitive industries, we are keen to place the implementation of our productive and digital operating model as our foremost concern with an unwavering commitment to enhance profitability, maximize our employees’ potential, improve their future career skills, and promote corporate sustainability. This is also accompanied by the hard work of our subsidiaries and their capabilities to execute business solutions in the ICT field.

stc’s strategic expansion in April 2022 through the acquisition of E-Portal Holding Company and its subsidiaries was a key step in its relevance with enabling the Company to create strong and solid grounds to achieve the sustainable growth in the future. In this regard, stc ensured establishing a holistic operating model, which significantly supports the strategic pillars of the digital transformation process. Therefore, through our subsidiaries, solutions by stc and E-Portal, specialized in providing the latest solutions for the enterprise sector, stc is keen to keep up with all the changes and challenges that would result from the economic impact in general, and the competition within the telecommunications sector in particular. This is attributed to updating its corporate strategy and structuring the Company’s operating model to ensure the best results, capture all the available opportunities in addition to designing smart plans that would take into consideration all the potential risks that might occur, in order to always be prepared to face future challenges.”

Commenting on the announcement of company’s financial results for the year ended December 31, 2022, Eng. Maziad Alharbi said: “In line with Company’s aspirations to add value to shareholders and exceed customers’ expectations, stc was able to generate strong financial results in FY2022. Whereby, stc recorded the highest total revenue since inception to reach KD 336.4 mn with a growth rate of 13.5% in 2022, compared to KD 296.3 mn last year. stc’s robust outcomes are attributed to the services and smart packages designed to cater the needs of almost all of the individual sector, with the support of the digital services and providing integrated technical solutions for the private and government sectors, that are provided by our subsidiaries. Furthermore, the accelerated demand for the integrated enterprise solutions and the continuous increased demand on the traditional telecommunications services in the Kuwaiti market have significantly attributed to achieving these outstanding results. Additionally, this growth in revenue was achieved with the significant support from the increase in stc’s customer base which has reached 2.3 million customers by the end of December 2022, representing a rise of 14.4% compared to December 2021.

Alharbi noted: “Accordingly, stc’s EBITDA witnessed a growth of 3.1% to reach KD 82.0 mn in 2022 compared to KD 79.6 mn in 2021. In an analysis of stc’s net profit during 2022 which reached KD 33.2 mn (earnings per share 33 fils) compared to KD 44.9 mn (earnings per share 45 fils) in 2021, in which the decline in net profit is due to the nonrecurring and extraordinary gains from legal claims in 2021. Whereby, without considering these nonrecurring and extraordinary gains, stc’s net profit in 2022 witnessed a growth of 12.7% with the support of the growth in revenue and cost operational efficiencies.”
Alharbi concluded: “The continuous update of stc’s long-term financial policy, short and long-term digital transformation strategy along the previous three years was the main attribute that facilitated the ability to keep pace with the most recent developments in the telecom industry. stc succeeded in not only satisfying and exceeding the needs of its customers, but it has also demonstrated its ability to build a wise financial and operational plan based on the Company’s cost optimization program. This, in turn, had a significant role in enhancing stc’s solvency and strong cash position.”