Mobile Telecommunications Company K.S.C.P. (ZAIN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

March 2, 2021

Boursa Kuwait KW Communication Services Wireless Telecommunication Services earnings 45 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Omar Maher

analyst
#1

Good morning, and good afternoon, everyone. This is Omar Maher from EFG Hermes. I'd like to welcome you all to Zain Group's 4Q 2020 Results Conference Call. As usual, the call will begin with a discussion of the key highlights of the period, and this will be followed by a Q&A session. I'd just like to note that the detailed financials and IR presentations are available on the website. And I will now hand the call over to Mohammad Abdal, Group Chief Communications Officer. Thank you very much. . Mohammad, I think you're on mute. Mohammad, we can hear you -- sorry, can you unmute again?

Mohammad Abdal

executive
#2

Hello.

Omar Maher

analyst
#3

Yes, I can hear you now.

Mohammad Abdal

executive
#4

Okay. Thank you, Omar. Sorry for that. Welcome, everyone, to Zain's full Year 2020 earnings conference call. With me today, Ossama Matta, our group CFO; and Iyadh Borgi, Operation and Business Performance Director. In a moment, we'll take you through the IR presentation, which has been posted earlier today on our corporate website. And after that, we're happy to answer any questions you might have. During this call, we will be making forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections or other statements about future events. These statements are based on the current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our detailed cautionary statement found on Slide #2. With that, I will now turn the call over to Ossama.

Ossama Matta

executive
#5

Thank you, Mohammad. Good afternoon to everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. We hope you and your families continue to remain safe and healthy as we navigate through the pandemic. COVID-19 hit the region hard in early March 2020. And since then, all our operations, key focus has been on providing uninterrupted connectivity, ensuring that our customers remain connected to their loved ones and meeting their existing and emerging connectivity requirements. We've also worked on implementing more digitalization initiatives to better serve communities, businesses and governments across our footprint. Our primary aim was to lessen the impact of the pandemic on society by granting increased digital access to essential medical, commercial, educational and financial services. The numerous actions Zain undertook to combat the pandemic are well documented on our media channels, so I won't delve more over into that. Before going into the financial information, I would like to walk you through some recent highlights clients that showcase our strategy and action. Since March 2020, we experienced over a 50% increase in high-speed broadband data traffic across various markets within our footprint. Our fixed and mobile broadband networks responded well to the surge in data traffic as remote learning and working from home became the norm. To meet the increase in demand for data, we were fortunate that several national regulatory authorities granted Zain temporary spectrums to use existing frequencies on a technology neutral basis. Moreover, Zain acquired additional spectrum in several of our operations. To take advantage of the full potential of our infrastructure, investments across our footprint, we have entered into a strategic partnership with TASC Towers Holding across several markets that is making progress. We soft launched Zain Data Park, ZDP in Kuwait and in Jordan, providing our government and enterprise customers with the very best IT support services, focused on cloud hosting and managed services across the ICT stack, including applications, cybersecurity and networking. Moreover, Zain KSA's cloud service offering is also gaining lots of traction. Zain Group API platform, which we have created in 2018 has been hugely successful, enabling faster deployment of digital partnerships and continues to grow substantially, resulting in over 5.2 million transactions per month with a total of 70 million transactions processed since the launch in 2018. ZINC Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, KSA and add to it, Omantel, all benefit from the new revenue stream from this cloud service. Most recently, we've also launched Sudan's largest digital entertainment platform, offering over 1,000 games for Zain Sudan customers on the group API platform. We've also launched Zain eSports in November 2020 to reach out to the youth of the region and find better propositions for the broadband services being offered by Zain operations. The eSports team has held several major tournaments to date and plans to organize more throughout 2021, along with multiple engagement activities to bolster the gaming ecosystem and build an active community for gamers in the region. The first week of January 2021 witnessed a milestone in our regional FinTech ambitions with the Saudi Central Bank, SAMA, granting Tamam, our Zain FinTech subsidiary, the first consumer microfinancing license in the region. This Sharia-compliant mobile application offers consumer microfinance in less than 5 minutes via a seamless digital customer experience. Moreover, Zain Cash platform in Iraq and Jordan has grown exponentially in both services, offered and transactions over the past 12 months. All our digital channels experienced a significant acceleration. Example, in some markets, over 90% of prepaid services and majority of postpaid services are now activated digitally, reaching 95% of total customer interactions. Zain KSA's digital-only mobile platform, which is Yaqoot, witnessed enormous growth during 2020, counting over 1 million installations of the app. Now I will move to the financials. The group's performance for 2020 reflects the reality of the pandemic's disruption on the economic, social activity and the unavoidable impact it had on our financial results. Nonetheless, we believe that Zain has succeeded in containing the adverse impact to reasonable levels given the dire circumstances. We estimate the COVID-19 pandemic disruption on economic activity due to the lockdowns and the travel ban across all Zain markets to have adversely impacted revenue by $417 million for the full year. This is consolidated. The group's decisive efficiency drive succeeded in reducing the operational expenses by $168 million. This is what we did to lessen the impact of COVID. Despite the COVID impact for the full year, Zain Group generated relatively stable revenues of $5.3 billion. Consolidated EBITDA for the period reached $2.2 billion with an EBITDA margin of 41%. Consolidated net income reached $605 million, reflecting earnings per share of 43 fils. On the CapEx side, the group continued to invest in our operations, we closed the year with a total of $1.4 billion of CapEx. This is including tangible and intangible, and it represents approximately 26% of the revenues. This CapEx was spent on 5G rollout coupled with the FTTH, 4G expansion as well as spectrum license fees in our markets, our expectations and plans for 2021 is 15% of the revenues in CapEx. We have focused on our digital strategy of monetizing this infrastructure and group API platform through compelling initiatives and packages for the B2B sector, covering government businesses, IoT, smart city sectors as well as focusing on gaming, entertainment, FinTech and e-health services. The group continues to maintain healthy cash flows. And we managed to reduce the group's total net debt by approximately $1 billion. If you look at the balance sheet of the group, you will see cash has increased by approximately $300 million, $350 million, and debt dropped by $600 million, $650 million. Total net debt improvement is $1 billion in 2020. And reducing our net debt to EBITDA, which is currently stands at 2x compared to 2.2x in 2019. This is a quick summary about the group. I will now go quickly on the operations and leave some room for questions. Slide 14, which is Zain Kuwait. On February 12, 2020, we mentioned this before, Zain Kuwait completed the sale and leaseback of the passive physical infrastructure of its towers for $150 million. The transaction is the first sale and leaseback of telecom towers in the Middle East by a mobile operator. Operationally, Zain Kuwait remains the most profitable company within the group, and maintains its market lead in terms of both value and customer base serving 2.6 million customers. Its market leadership on all key financial indicators is highlighted by its revenue representing 39% of the total market revenue. And most importantly, 76% of the industry's net income. 2020 was an extremely challenging year with the pandemic impacting the operation at many different levels. For 2020, revenue dropped by only 4% due to the COVID-19 impact, which is estimated to be $62 million. On account of the lockdown, and government directives to support the community during the crisis by providing free local calls and free data usage for 1 month, in addition to the loss of roaming revenues, with the travel limitations. Due to several cost optimization initiatives implemented by the operation, we managed to limit the EBITDA drop for the year to 11%. Accordingly, net income for the year increased -- decreased sorry by 8% only, mainly on account of pandemic and increase in depreciation due to significant investment in the 5G rollout. Given Zain's commitment to enhancing customer experience, the operator accelerated 5G deployment to cater for the surge in data demand during the pandemic, while carefully balancing the network. We invested $101 million, which represents approximately 10% of the revenues in CapEx during 2020, deploying more than 500 new 5G sites. Our expectations is the same for 2021 in terms of percentage of revenues. We are very optimistic on the next phase of growth for Zain Kuwait, exploiting its dominant 5G network which is evident with the launch of iPhone 12 and the focus on digital services to individuals and the B2B space. We move to Slide 15, which is Saudi Arabia. Despite the extremely challenging year for KSA, which was characterized by travel restrictions that led to a huge reduction in numbers of visitors for Hajj and Umrah and also the impact on businesses, the operator remained profitable for the fourth consecutive year. The customer base dropped 8% to 7 million customers. And this is mainly due to expats leaving the kingdom. Revenue for the year amounted to $2.1 billion compared to $2.2 billion in 2019. This decrease in revenue is attributable to manufacturers impacting the top line mainly the impact of COVID, which we estimated to be $176 million. The reduction in the MTR rates. And the VAT increases from 5% to 15% that happened in July 2020. EBITDA for the year decreased by only 10%, reflecting a healthy EBITDA margin of 43%, net income fell by 46% to $69 million on account of the top line performance, lower CITC waiver compared to last year, and higher depreciation and amortization due to the acquisition of new spectrum and rollout of 5G. During 2020, Zain KSA invested $785 million, which is approximately 37% of revenues on CapEx, spectrum and license fees, providing connectivity through 10 -- almost like 10,000 network sites, which includes approximately 4,500 5G sites across 50 cities. Our expectation because we did so heavy investment in 2020 to have a lesser investment in 2021, and it will be approximately 14% to 15% of revenues. And Zain KSA successfully refinanced and extended the maturity date of its existing 5-year syndicated Murabaha facility that has an outstanding amount of SAR 3.8 billion as of September 30, 2020, which we extended it until 2025 at better commercial terms, including working capital facility. This refinancing reduces the cost of the debt and improve the company's financial performance and profitability. Also, what was successful and important in 2020 was the completion of Zain KSA's capital restructuring in -- during Q4, reflected -- this reflected the confidence of the shareholders and the operators' operational strategy and future growth plans. The proceeds from the rights issue were used to deleverage the debt of the company. If we move to Slide 16, which is Zain Iraq, Zain Iraq was granted 4G license, with the 2G and 3G mobile license extended to 2030. This license extension has a favorable impact on the company's financials. Also a healthy growth in revenue is expected with the rollout of 4G commercially in early 2021. Given the competitive and challenging environment in Iraq, combined with the COVID-19 outbreak and the fall in oil prices globally, Iraq's economy shrank by approximately 12% in 2020. Unlike most other countries with partial lockdowns, the authorities in Iraq imposed a full curfew from mid-March to August. Accordingly, the subsequent reduction in economic activity affected Zain's top line performance for the year as revenue was down by 12% to reach $943 million, the impact of COVID on revenue is estimated to be $131 million. EBITDA decreased by 19%, mainly due to the drop in revenues. However, net income increased by 17% and and this is due to lower amortization following the license extension and the lower cost of financing. Net income for the year was $80 million. Customers grew by 3% to reach [ 16.2 million ] customers during the course of 2020. Zain Iraq is focusing heavily on enterprise and on the enterprise segment, and this is proving to be an extremely profitable growth area in both service and data revenue. The operator launched new voice and data bundles for the B2B segment as well as new business solutions, such as VPN, DIA and IP services and customized existing bundles. Our operator -- our sorry, FinTech arm in Iraq is Zain Cash. Zain Cash saw exceptional growth in 2020, doubling the number of transactions during the year, which is expected to continue growing in the years to come. The not so good news is in December, around December 20 or December 19, the government -- the Iraqi government decided to devalue the Iraqi dinar, given the contraction of the Iraqi economy due to COVID and local macroeconomic issues. In response, Zain Iraq has implemented actionable measures to mitigate the devaluation impact on the operation as well as on the group. However, we will be better positioned to discuss this matter and the progress of the 4G rollout in the next call we have for Q1 2021. If we go to Jordan, which is Slide 17, Zain Jordan remains the market leader, serving 3.6 million customers despite an estimated $22 million impact on revenue due to COVID, the drop in interconnect revenues due to lower NPR, revenues for the year decreased only 2%. The expectations was the drop will be more than this, but we managed to lessen the impact. Consequently, EBITDA was down 2%, maintaining a healthy margin of 44%. Net income for the year increased by 3% despite the increase in depreciation and amortization on account of investments in 4G and FTTH. CapEx in Jordan amounted to $68 million in 2020, reflecting 14% of the company's revenue. CapEx was mainly spent on FTTH expansion and 4G network sites. We expect 2021 to be the same in terms of percentage of revenues. There is a major focus on expanding Zain Data Park's offering of cybersecurity, cloud hosting and managed services that are hosted in Zain Jordan Tier 3 data center and disaster recovery facility. Zain Jordan's focus on FinTech. So Zain Cash, the country's most prominent e-wallet, increased its customer base by over 200% and witnessed a doubling of card payment transactions during the year. We go quickly to Slide 18, which is Sudan, with a leading customer market share of 48%, Zain Sudan was able to further improve its market position by reporting a customer growth of 4.4% to reach 16.6 million customers. Despite the pandemic impact on revenues, estimated at approximately $11 million, Zain Sudan reported its best performance ever since 2016. The operator witnessed the highest increase in its financial performance in both SDG, which is the local currency, and USD terms. For the year 2020, revenue grew by 62% year-on-year in SDG terms. In dollar terms, it has increased by 37%. We reached $416 million due to a number of price revamps in 2020 and the new bundles that we were -- that were launched in the market. EBITDA increased by 67% in SDG terms; in USD terms, $171 million, up by 41%, and net income increased 47%. In dollar terms, it's $61 million, up 23%. The expansion of 4G, combined with data marketing initiatives, saw data revenue grow by an impressive 142%, representing 26% of total revenues in SDG terms. Zain Sudan invested approximately $110 million in CapEx, which is 26% of its revenues, expanding on acquiring multiple spectrum bands to enhance its 4G LTE network across the country. By the end of 2020, the operator's mobile network covered 90% of the population via 2,800 sites. On February, this is also the bad news, 21st of 2021, Sudan's Central Bank sharply devalued the currency, announcing a new regime to unify official and the black market exchange rate in an effort to overcome the crippling economic crisis and access debt relief. We read that the bank set the indicative rate at GBP 375 to the dollar according to the commercial banking sources from a previous official rate of GBP 55. This is definitely not good news for Zain. However, we will have to adapt our prices and future strategy. But generally, currency aside, the Sudan telecom market is very promising, like Iraq in the next call for Q1 2021, I will be able to elaborate more on the impact this will have on the group. To go back to the group results. Finally, as you know, the Board of Directors agreed that despite the COVID-19 impact on revenues, and the FX impact on the group's results coming mainly from Sudan, it will adhere to its 3-year minimum cash dividend policy commitment of 33 fils per share. That was approved at the AGM last year. This 33 fils per share reflects a 77% payout ratio. I would like to conclude by assuring all on this call that the Board and executive management are working closely together in minimizing the pandemic impact across our footprint, with particular focus on increasing digital services, driving efficiencies and cost optimization and monetizing our 4G and 5G networks. On a final note and on behalf of the Board, I want to thank all of our employees for their dedication, flexibility and execution in this very challenging environment, I would also like to thank all the government ministries and regulatory authorities across our markets for their wisdom and understanding of the emerging industry dynamics supporting us in overcoming challenges faced by the telecom sector during these unique times. I hope I was not too long. With that, I will hand over to Mohammad Abdal for Q&A. Thank you.

Mohammad Abdal

executive
#6

Thanks, Ossama. With that, we'll now move to the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] Operator, can you please repeat your instructions?

Omar Maher

analyst
#7

[Operator Instructions] So we have the first question from [ Mark Lawrence ]. This says how much dollar cash and dollar debt do you have in Sudan?

Ossama Matta

executive
#8

Yes, sorry, I was muted. In Sudan, we don't have any debt. There is no debt on the company.

Omar Maher

analyst
#9

And the cash?

Ossama Matta

executive
#10

The cash in Sudan, it's approximately $70 million, approximately $70 million.

Omar Maher

analyst
#11

All right. Thank you, Ossama. The next question is from...

Ossama Matta

executive
#12

The reason for this question probably is related to the devaluation in the currency. The plan for us in Sudan as it was before. We always looked at the black market rate in 2020 and before and not on the official rate when it comes to our prices, when it comes to our investment. So what we did on a quarterly basis, we used to increase prices by 25%. And that's why you've seen the impressive performance in 2020. What we're going to do also in 2021 is to tackle this sharp devaluation by increasing our prices in Sudan and also minimizing the cost as much as we can, the dollar side of the cost.

Omar Maher

analyst
#13

And then the follow-up question from Mark on this is, are there any capital controls in Sudan?

Ossama Matta

executive
#14

Yes, yes, of course. But now we still don't know what happens after the sanctions have been lifted. There are capital controls. You cannot repatriate cash outside Sudan. It's not easy. It's controlled by Central Bank. I don't know if this is the question, and this is the answer that you want.

Omar Maher

analyst
#15

And his last question is, what plans for -- what plans do you have for Scott's replacement?

Ossama Matta

executive
#16

Who? Scott Gegenheimer? Yes, we now -- the management here at Zain is led by Bader Al Kharafi, he is the group CEO. And the rest of the management team, very diversified team, very experienced team. We also rely on our CEOs at the operations, hand picked. I don't see any -- there is a need to replace the box, which [indiscernible]. And there is no need for it.

Omar Maher

analyst
#17

So the next question is from Nishit Lakhotia.

Nishit Lakhotia

analyst
#18

Yes. I have a couple of questions. First, on the rights issue of Zain Saudi, I was wondering why did Zain Group convert its shareholder loan and not accrued management fees part because you're anyways getting interest on the shareholder loan. So was it mandatory, you didn't have a choice to convert your shareholder loan and not the management fees where it was total interest-free liability? And also, I see that Zain Saudi is now keeping this as a current liability. Does it mean that they will be paying off more than [ 3 billion riyal ] upstream to Zain Group? Why have this classification changed from noncurrent to current for Zain Saudi? That's my first question. And another thing on Zain Saudi is the reversal of provision, has it been completed in this -- in 2020? I mean, do we expect any more reversal happening next year, given that there was a shortage in terms of the target from 1.7 billion, you only reversed in total 1.3 billion in Zain Saudi. So will there be more reversals happening in 2021? Or this is done, [ end of it ]. So that's on the Zain Saudi. And on Iraq, I saw that you changed the functional currency to avoid the transaction impact from the dollar loans in entity. So what exactly has happened there? And you've been mentioning that you're safeguarding on the dollar margins. So you've increased the prices in Iraq. So color on this functional currency change would be helpful.

Ossama Matta

executive
#19

On the Saudi, the rights issue, it was a technical requirement actually to convert the debt and not the management fees. So we could not convert the management fee due. And it was also sensible from our side to convert the debt rather than management fee because it will have a unpleasant impact with the rest of the shareholders in Saudi. Now the good thing is Saudi, Zain Saudi was able to upstream to the group, substantial amount of money in 2020. And the plan is to do the same in 2021. If you look -- and this is what I've been -- I mentioned, the cash flow -- the cash consolidated [ at the equivalent ] has increased. The cash flow at the group management has increased considerably. This was going to be basically used to pay dividends. And the debt has grown. So from a financial position, the company is in a better financial position now. Regarding Zain Iraq, it's a lot of questions.

Unknown Executive

executive
#20

Reversal on provisions.

Ossama Matta

executive
#21

Yes. Reversal on the provisions. We have reversed almost completely the provision related to the CITC. The only left actually is approximately SAR 40 million only that we have [ kept at ], and this is mainly once we get the clearance from the regulator, we will reverse it. The good thing that happened in 2020 is 2 things: 1 is the Murabaha refinancing, which we reduced the cost of debt. The other thing is the rights issue that we have done, and this has also deleveraged the company, whether it's on the external debt or debt to Zain, which is fine. From a Zain Saudi point of view, there is a deleverage on the Zain KSA, and this will lead to better savings. The other thing is the heavy investment that we have done in 2020, which we're going to -- which we started benefiting from in 2020, and it will come in 2021. So whatever we have benefited from the waivers of CITC will -- and it is over, we have replenished it. We have used it all, it will be compensated by the benefit coming from the rights issue and the refinancing by reducing the debt. So the focus will be on the services and the 5G services. In Iraq, I think you mentioned about the devaluation and the change in the functional currency. Yes, in December 19, the Central Bank devalued the currency by 20%. To change to a functional currency, you have to prove that your revenues are linked to USD that your expenses are in USD predominantly and that your balance sheet is mainly in USD, which we basically proved to the auditors, and it was actually before in previous years, the functional currency of Iraq is in dollars, everything actually is dollarized in Iraq. So you can see immediately in Iraq that prices has increased by the devaluation in the currency. What we will do to lessen the impact of the devaluation is basically increase the prices, but we cannot do a sudden change because this will have a major impact on the the market and competition. We will be doing it over a period of like 1 quarter, 2 quarters max. And by doing the change in the functional currency, we avoided an accounting hit of [ $150 million ]. This is coming from the debt of $600 million on the balance sheet. I think I answered all your questions unless I miss talking.

Nishit Lakhotia

analyst
#22

No, Ossama that was very clear. But just a follow-up on the Zain Saudi part that you mentioned. Regarding the reversal you said, most of the reversal has already been done. What am I missing here? Because I remember SAR 1.7 billion that was supposed to be reversed over 3 years when originally the CITC royalty rate was changed and Zain has announced. And I calculate the reversals that Zain has done to be at around $1.29 billion, if I take all your quarterly announcements. So have you reversed more than $1.3 billion here? Because I think only $40 million is left?

Ossama Matta

executive
#23

What we have reversed is approximately [ 600 million ] every year, [ 600 million ], [ 650 million ] every year. It's over 3 years. I don't know if you are counting the first year, it was '18, '19 and '20. '18, it was in Q4 -- in Q4. But we have announced on all of this. And the remaining is only [ 40 million ] to be reversed in 2021 or 2022. It depends when we're going to get clearance from CITC.

Omar Maher

analyst
#24

Next question is from [ Sami Murad ] and it says you pay for license in Iraq in USD or local currency? And do you expect the data usage pickup in Iraq similar to Sudan on 4G rollout?

Ossama Matta

executive
#25

And yes, and Iraq -- it's also 1 of the arguments that we used to prove our case that the license fee, the spectrum, everything that we get from the government, we pay it in U.S. dollars, and it is in U.S. dollars. On the increase in prices, the plan is to match the devaluation of the currency. And we're going to do it not in 1 go, but over a short period of time. We have many, many ways to do it. One of them is getting out completely from the unlimited packages that we have in the market. And that's with the 4G services, customers will start paying -- pay as you go, the more they utilize, the more they pay. The other thing is some of the packages will automatically have a sharp increase in the price. Others will have a reduction in value to the customers. So all of this will come to reducing the impact significantly from the devaluation. Plus, coupled with the optimization, cost optimization that we are also planning to do. I think 2021 will be tough but achievable in terms of the target that we put.

Omar Maher

analyst
#26

And then there's another follow-up from Samit and it says, when should we expect Zain KSA to show growth in revenue and subscribers on having the best 5G network? And should we see this in '21?

Ossama Matta

executive
#27

In '23 -- well, if you look at the Q4 of Saudi compare it to Q3, you will see a good growth in terms of revenues. I would say you need to base 2021 based on Q4 of 2020 for Saudi. As I mentioned before, the successful implementation of 5G across 50 cities, if you don't take it, even from us, look at it from the third-party reports, that is in the market, which is the [indiscernible] or another report, Opensignal. They actually referred to Zain KSA as the best 5G network in Zain -- in Saudi, in -- covering 50 cities. And the good thing is our -- and better network. And the good thing, our prices are less by 15%, and we're going to push for this. And we also got a survey from the ministry. There are like 8,000 -- sorry, 8 million houses in Saudi. Only 3 million of them are connected to fiber. 5 million are in the market [ 2 gram ] on 5G. We also have seen a lot of reports and from customers, saying that 5G experience is much better in FTTH because of the investment of backbone, whatever on the FTTH from the competition. So all of this, I would say, will definitely help us to push on the 5G. And we have started seeing it in January and February. I hope I answered your question.

Omar Maher

analyst
#28

Thank you, Ossama. [Operator Instructions] All right. We have a follow-up from Nishit.

Nishit Lakhotia

analyst
#29

Yes. I didn't want to take more time, but since I have an opportunity, I have 1 more question on the Sudanese pound devaluation impact. I know you're going to be giving more details later in the next quarter. I just wanted to understand on rationale why Zain has not classified Republic of Sudan under hyperinflation. Given that the inflation there is already at 300%. So in case it does, we'll do -- will we see a huge impact like we saw in South Sudan? And what is your current situation there in terms of net monitory liability or asset at the country?

Ossama Matta

executive
#30

Okay. The reason behind this, if you look at Sudan, with the inflation story, we, I think, like 3 years back or 4 years back, we had the same discussion on the hyperinflation in Sudan. And the inflation was more than 100% over 3 consecutive years. And there was a big argument that we have to go into hyperinflation accounting because the economies are hyperinflation. The data at that time was questionable. And the reason we said, no, it doesn't make any sense because the country is moving now with the [indiscernible] with the South Sudanese and things are moving into the right direction. And actually, it's proof that we were correct that it went into hyperinflation and went out of hyperinflation. And the big 5 at that time or the big 4, which they created a task force for Sudan, they basically confirmed that they are out -- that Sudan is out from the hyperinflation. So for us to go in hyperinflation and out from hyperinflation, this will basically cause a lot of confusion to the reader and the shareholders of Zain. And also, if you look at the data that we have this year, there are different data. One of them peaked at like 600%. And then there was another correction that no, it is not 600%, it's like 300% in terms of hyperinflation. Now what we see here with the sharp devaluation that happened, it's basically tactic by the Central Bank to eliminate the parallel market or the black market. It was before the black market at 400, the official rate was 55. Now the official rate is at 375. And that black market is approximately 380 if I'm not mistaken. So the reason they are doing this is to eliminate the black market, try to get relief from the IMF. And this will definitely help in reducing the impact on inflation. This is basically our hope. Had we used hyperinflation, it would be the opposite of Sudan. For Sudan, we had the benefit from hyperinflation. Here, it will not be. I hope I answered your question.

Omar Maher

analyst
#31

And we don't have any more questions in the queue. So would you like to make any concluding remarks?

Mohammad Abdal

executive
#32

Thank you, Omar, and thank you, everyone. Please refer to the Investor Relations website for additional updates, and feel free to contact the IR team for further information. We look forward for your future participation in our Q1 2021 update. Thank you all for joining the call. Stay safe.

Ossama Matta

executive
#33

Thank you.

Unknown Executive

executive
#34

Thank you.

Omar Maher

analyst
#35

Thank you. This concludes the call.

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