Zain Group has reported consolidated revenues of USD4.58 billion for 2012, down 4.3% year-on-year, despite a 6.0% increase in its consolidated subscriber base to 42.7 million active subscribers across all operations. The company blamed the sales dip on negative foreign currency movements, including a 55% decline against the US dollar of the Sudanese pound. EBITDA for the period came in at USD2.04 billion, giving an EBITDA margin of 44.5%, while net income fell almost 13% year-on-year to USD902 million.

Commenting on the results, the chairman of the board of directors Assad Al Banwan said: ‘2012 has been a challenging year and Zain’s financial indicators suffered from sharp currency translation impact in some of the markets in which we operate, which cost Zain’s bottom line approximately USD109 million. Without the effects of the currency translation impact, consolidated revenues would have been USD4.88 billion, while EBITDA would have been USD2.15 billion, and net profits USD1 billion.’