MOROCCO – Morocco’s main telecommunication company Maroc Telecom realized a profit of MAD 6 billion (about US$620 million) in 2019, an increase of 1% compared to 2018.
Maroc Telecom revealed this in a statement adding that its total revenue reached MAD 36.5 billion ($3.76 billion) in 2019, recording an increase of 1.3% compared to the previous year.
The company attributed the slight improvement in its revenue to the growing mobile data activity in Morocco and African markets.
Maroc Telecom also noted that its customer base reached 67.6 million customers in 2019 recording an increase of 11.1%, thanks to the growth in demand for its mobiles (5.2%) and landlines (3.5%) in Morocco.
The company further revealed that it will distribute dividends of MAD 5.54 per share to shareholders, totaling MAD 4.9 billion (about US$504.43 million).
In January, Morocco’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) fined Maroc Telecom MAD 3.3 billion ($339.72 million) for anti-competitive practices in “the implementation of local-loop unbundling.”
Local-loop unbundling is a regulatory process by which telecommunication companies are committed to providing services and telecommunication elements to any requesting telecom company, such as providing access to underground telecommunications infrastructure.
ANRT said that IAM abused its dominant position in the market by delaying and impeding competitors’ access to unbundling on its network and the fixed market.
Inwi had responded to the judgement by say that ANRT’s decision will “restore fair competition in the telecommunications market benefiting consumers and companies as well as strict compliance to the laws and regulations in this field,”.
The sanction came after ANRT conducted an investigation based on the complaint of IAM’s competitor INWI submitted in December 2016.
Maroc Telecom, which is listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris, is 53% controlled by the UAE’s Etisalat with the Moroccan state owning 22%.
It operates subsidiaries in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Togo and the Central African Republic.
