Ooredoo Q.P.S.C. (ORDS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Foreign Language] Welcome to Ooredoo's Financial Results Call for the year 2023. My name is Andreas Goldau, and I'm in charge of Investor Relations. This is my 58th consecutive and final results call for Ooredoo. Happy to finish on a high note with some record numbers. Thank you for your support to the last almost 15 years. I'm handing over the ESG part to Ahmad Al-Neama and the Investor Relations part to Luelle Pillay. Over to you, Luelle, what do you have on the agenda for today?

Thank you, Andreas. Today, I am joined by Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, CEO and Managing Director; as well as is Eyas Assaf, our Deputy CFO; filling in for Abdulla, our Group CFO, who has out-of-office commitments this week. Aziz will start with an update on how we've progressed against our strategy, and take us through the consolidated results, after which Eyas will provide an overview on the operational performance. As always, we will keep the presentation brief to allow ample time for your questions. Please type your questions into the Q&A section of the Zoom seminar at any time. The presentation is available on the Ooredoo website at ooredoo.com as well as on this webcast. The recording and transcription of the session has started now. So by attending the session, you consent to be included. Please note the usual disclaimer on Slide #2. And on that note, I hand over to Aziz.

Hello, and welcome to our 2023 investor call. Before we dive into our 2023 performance, it's worth taking a minute to affirm and reiterate our strategy. We're positioning Ooredoo as the leading digital infrastructure provider in the region. An efficient telecom operator at the Korek and enhancing the value of existing assets within our infrastructure stack by turn them into independent profit centers. To do so means we need to invest in our people, protect and grow our customer base and drive growth by positioning our tower and data center assets as well as our fintech activities as stand-alone entities. 2023 has been a very busy year. So let me update you briefly on our progress against our priorities. In December, as many of you are aware, we finalized a significant agreement to establish the largest tower company in the MENA region. This transaction crystallizes the value on our passive mobile infrastructure valuing our 18,000 towers at roughly $1.7 billion. It also gives us a 49.3% stake in the resulting JV valued at $2.2 billion. And upon the closing in each market, we will receive cash equalization payments. In the data center vertical, we have completed the carve-out in Qatar and Tunisia. Kuwait and Iraq will follow suit. We are in discussions with specialized data center operators to partner or come in as minority investors, bringing in the skills and expertise needed to accelerate this vertical. In the fintech vertical, we've carved out our Qatari operation as a wholly owned subsidiary. We have received an approval in principle for our license in Oman and are in the testing phase. We continue to pursue licenses application in Iraq, Kuwait and Tunisia, which we are hoping to receive within this year. Turning to our 2023 financial results. We maintain our positive momentum into the last quarter of 2023 with an improvement in all financial metrics. In 2023, we grew revenue and improved profitability. A key highlight to note is that we achieved an all-time high reported net profit at QAR 3 billion. I'm pleased to announce that the Board has recommended a dividend of QAR 0.55 compared to QAR 0.43 last year per share. This is a 28% year-on-year increase. From a strategic perspective, as I already mentioned, we signed definitive agreements with our partner, Zain and TASC to create the MENA's largest tower company with over 30,000 towers. And IOH continue to realize the synergies from the merger at the higher end of our target range and in an accelerated time frame. Key financial highlights for the full year are growth on all key metrics, a 2% increase in revenue to QAR 23 billion, reported EBIT grew by 4% and just shy of QAR 10 billion. Reported EBITDA margin improved by 1 percentage point to 42%. Free cash flows are up by 4% to QAR 6.9 billion and as already mentioned, reported net profit is up by 28% to QAR 3 billion. And on a normalized basis, net profit was up by 16%. We had a solid fourth quarter, as you can see on the slide. Let's move on to the next slide for the revenue bridge. Our full year revenue was up by 2%. This was driven by our operation in Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait and Maldive which maintained their growth trajectory through the year. Myanmar and Palestine grew in local currency but were impacted by currency depreciation. Qatar's revenue was softer as the 2022 base was boosted by the World Cup. On to the next slide for an overview of our EBITDA performance. On a full year basis, we grew EBITDA by 4% and improved margin by 1 percentage point to 42%. We benefited from solid growth in service revenue and a strict OpEx control. Oman's EBITDA was affected by lower gross margin and higher OpEx. Qatar's lower EBITDA was mainly due to softer top line growth. Now turning to the net profit. Full year net profit numbers were solid. Reported net profit increased by 28% to QAR 3 billion, an all-time high for the group. On a normalized basis, growth was 16% to QAR 3.3 billion, also an all-time high. These numbers are a testament to our ongoing focus on profitability and efficiencies. In the following slide, you can see the bridge between reported and normalized net profit. I think these charts are self-explanatory. In 2023, we took a goodwill impairment charge on Ooredoo Tunisia as well as an impairment on Iraqi and Palestinian fixed assets. That was offset by a one-off gain. NMTC won its legal case this year that translated into a gain of QAR 446 million. And we made QAR 139 million, re-evaluation gain on the Meeza IPO in Qatar. Q4 net profit increased by 27% on a reported basis and 8% on a normalized basis. In the following slide, you can see the bridge between reported and normalized net profit. The main adjustment for Q4 were additional impairment charges on Tunisia goodwill and impairment on fixed assets in Iraq, restructuring of the network and Palestine Gaza war infrastructure damage. We maintained our 2023 CapEx spend around the 2022 levels. Spend in Tunisia and Iraq were driven by network upgrades. In Maldives, we extended fiber coverage across the islands. In Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, CapEx spend declined as most of the network upgrades and the 5G upgrades were done in the previous years. In Myanmar, we continue to manage this operation on minimal CapEx only. We ended the year with strong free cash flow generation. Free cash flow grew by 4% to QAR 6.9 billion on improved profitability mainly. On a consolidated basis, we grew our customer base by 3% from 56 million subscribers to about 58 million subscribers. Every opco managed to grow their customer base. As previously reported, the decline in our Qatari customer base is due to a change in the definition of prepaid customer. On a like-for-like basis, and excluding the FIFA connection in 2022, our customer base in Qatar grew by 2%. As you have seen through this presentation, we have delivered strong results for the year and in turn, achieved the 2023 guidance targets. Our revenue is ahead of our guidance, up by 2%. EBITDA margin expanded by 1 percentage point to 42% and CapEx spend was within our target. We maintain the same guidance for 2024 financial year, expecting revenues to remain flat with revenue growth in most of our opcos in local currency. In terms of EBITDA, we expect to have an EBITDA margin in the low to mid-40s with a strong focus on cost control. Lastly, on CapEx, given our strategic focus on the data center vertical, our CapEx spend will increase to around QAR 3.5 billion this year. This slide reiterates the group's strong financial position. Our gearing is low and below our board guidance. We have worked with our lenders to extend availability of our existing RCF up to 2028. We now have ample liquidity to cover our various maturities. We are also structurally hedged for interest rate hikes as 96% of our debt is FX rate. Given that this is the most recurrent question we get, I thought we would conclude my section by highlighting our shareholder returns over the past 5 years. In the chart, you will see the trajectory of dividend payments, affirming the value we have generated for our shareholders over the years. Healthy dividend payouts with a cumulative increase of 120% since 2019. Our dividend policy aims for a dividend payout of between 40% to 60% of normalized earnings. And for the past 2 years, we have been at the top of that range. For 2023, the Board recommended a dividend of QAR 0.55 per share and a dividend yield of 5.2%, representing a 28% increase over 2022 and a 59% payout ratio. That concludes my section. I now hand over to Eyas for the operational review.

Thank you, Aziz. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll take you through our operational performance for 2023. Let's start with our home market, Qatar. Full year voted revenue declined by 8% a few and [ back ] to note. First, we discontinued our low-margin transit revenue. Second, we carved out the fintech business. And the last point or the third point, as you remember, that '22 benefited from the FIFA World Cup. On a normalized basis, revenue was flat. EBITDA decreased by 6% year-on-year due to higher comparison base and one-off impacts. Normalizing for the revenue impact I mentioned and as well as one-off provisions, EBITDA declined only by 1%. Reported EBITDA margin remained solid at 49%. It's worth highlighting that the normalized EBITDA margin was 52%. Moving to Kuwait. Kuwait benefited from operational efficiencies and solid commercial momentum. The operation grew customer base by 5% that helped drive a revenue growth of 4%. EBITDA for the year increased by 14%, while the margin expanded by 3 percentage points, thanks to higher service revenue and effective cost control. Moving to Oman. Competition remained intense, mainly in the mobile prepared signal. As a result, revenue remained flat despite the growth on mobile prepared segment. Pressure on top line and the gross margin as well as slightly higher operational costs, led to EBITDA decreasing by 9% year-on-year. Oman managed to sustain a solid EBITDA margin of 47% through the year. There has been a positive trend sequentially and the Q4 revenue was 5% higher than Q3 '23. Turning to Iraq, Asiacell was once again a strong performer, delivered double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth while expanding its customer base. Full year revenue grew by 21%. VAT exemption on telecom recharge, encourage usage and voice and data services supporting top line growth. EBITDA increased by 24%, while margin expanded by 1 percentage point to 44%. One of costs have been incurred in Q4 impacting EBITDA performance for the quarter. Moving to Algeria. Ooredoo Algeria was another star performer for the group in '23. The customer base grew 3% to QAR 13.4 million. We had a strong momentum in revenue as it increased by 11% and part due to a 5% appreciation of the dinar. EBITDA served by 26%, with a notable 5 percentage point increase in margin, which now stands at 40%. This strong performance is a testament to enhance efficiency and driving profitability within the organization, moving from Algeria to Tunisia. Ooredoo Tunisia fell then back of a challenging operating environment. Full year revenue remained flat while EBITDA declined 15%, and the EBITDA margin compressed by 7 percentage points. We continue to invest in the country. With the spend on the mobile infrastructure is paying off. We align [ fares ] also in the customer satisfaction, and we also continue to roll out fiber to advance our competitiveness. Now moving to Asia. In Myanmar, currency depreciation had impact in our reported financials. However, on a local currency basis, revenue grew by 4% due to growth in voice and fixed revenue. EBITDA Improved by 4% despite the challenging external environment. Turning to Maldives. We increased our investment in the infrastructure, which helped us to gain market share, grow our share of the customer increased revenue, improve profitability. And in '23, our revenue grew by 9%. EBITDA also increased by 14% while margin improved by 3 percentage points to 56%, which is the highest margin within the group. In Ooredoo Palestine, our focus is on the well-being of our staff and ensuring our customers stay connected through the challenging situation in the country. On a reported basis, revenue decreased due to a 9% depreciation of the local currency against the U.S. dollar, which is our reporting currency. Excluding the negative exchange rate. Revenue increased by 2%. EBITDA increased by 14% with a robust EBITDA margin of 39%. Last but not least, Indonesia. [ i-watch ] released results 2 weeks ago reflecting double-digit growth. Revenue grew by 10% with an even stronger growth in EBITDA of 22% and 47% EBITDA margin. This concludes my operational review, back to the IR team.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Eyas. Before we get into the Q&A session, you will see on your screen the upcoming conferences that we intend to participate in. Details to be confirmed. Our Annual General Meeting is scheduled for the 6th of March. Now to the Q&A part. For the Q&A session, I'm joined by senior leadership in addition to Aziz, the MD and CEO, Eyas, our Deputy CFO; and we also have our Head of Strategy Rene Werner. [Operator Instructions] So we have our first question in the cash side of this Q&A session. So even our growth guidance, the slide said low 40 percentage margin, but the commentary said low to mid 40, which should we use?

Well, we're currently at 42% this year -- so our target is to sustain that level or improve it. We had given during the strategy days that we were looking to target the mid 40s within the next couple of years. So we're staying on that guidance. You should appreciate our mission.

Our next question is from Nishit Lakhotia from SICO bank. Which countries will see first progress in the TowerCo deal? And when is it expected to begin?

So for the TowerCo deal, our priority are 2 tools probably Qatar first as this is our home market and Iraq, as it's the largest market and also the markets where both Zain, our partners and our self operate and therefore, where there are the most synergies. We then look to very quickly within the year or maybe a bit towards next year to the subsequent markets, which are going, Algeria and Tunisia.

Our next question is also a tact question. Please feel free to also ask all your questions. Ooredoo has recently modified its Articles of Association to quarterly payout for dividends. So should we expect dividend to be paid more frequently this year? This is from Nishit Lakhotia again.

Well, we try to give you a slide, full slides on dividends this time, but the question keeps coming. Now we modified the Articles of Associations in accordance with the change of regulations of the FCRA rate which gives the Board the flexibility to decide on interim or one-off dividends as we currently pay. But once again, this will be a decision reserved by the Board.

Next question from Ole Adamson. Please elaborate more on your capital allocation priorities going forward? The leverage ratio remains below the target level. Are you looking at more M&A opportunities? Or do you expect to keep the low leverage on a sustainable basis?

So maybe I'll let Eyas after take it a bit further. In general, from an operational standpoint, as a telco, we like to sustain quite a low leverage. I think this gives us a competitive advantage. Also, as you mentioned, this would give us the firepower if needed on an opportunistic basis to do inorganic growth. So it's through acquisition, whether by buying telco operation, as we've been doing over the past year, some very small ancillary acquisition in the footprints where we operate or to enhance our TowerCo platform and data center platform and fintech platform. This gives us quite a lot of agility. But you should also remember that from the moment we closed the TowerCo transaction from an accounting perspective, the leases will suddenly be accounted as debt liabilities through IFRS. So normally, on a status-co basis, once we close all our markets in the TowerCo basis, and correct me if I'm wrong, ,I think we go from 0.9x to 1.2x net debt to EBITDA just by the virtue of the leases.

Yes. We move from as per Aziz to give out 1.7x. And we are expecting once we close all of them we'll grow between 1.5x, even we might be 1.5x Therefore, the account level or the 1.5x to 2.5x is we keep it as it is for time until we finish the tower deal and we see that whole impact.

Great. Let's move to an audio question. Omar Maher from EFG.

A question on Iraq. Specifically on the outlook for '24 post or beyond the positive impact that you're seeing from the cancellation of the value-added tax. And the question is basically should we see a return to normal like lower growth after the onetime impact from this cancellation? I'm specifically looking at what happened back in 2017, I think that was implemented towards the end of '16. And for the 2 operators who state as available publicly, we saw like immediately a 20% drop in revenue in the year following that and kind of like the growth return to normal. So I'm wondering if we're expecting to see the same like trends, but the other way around?

Yes. For Iraq, last year, we saw an increase of movement due to different factors. One of them is the VAT or the sales tax removal. But also we saw in the Q3, Q4, this interconnection related to Korek where the regulatory stock, the interpolation, therefore, it's given more reason or more help to push the numbers. We are not expecting that the regulatory or the government would cancel the decision on the VAT. Therefore, we don't expect a drop that maybe also you don't expect 2-digit growth in '24. In general, as you know, we should give outlook for the group, as Aziz highlighted what is our outlook for the Group, we don't go [indiscernible].

Staying on Iraq, the Iraq operation, can you please elaborate on the kind of one-off costs incurred Q4? And can you elaborate on the dry winds behind the top line growth in Q4?

For the top line growth, which I highlighted is mix of many things we said this the VAT, which happened beginning of the year on December '22. Also in Q4 this storage interconnection with Korek and was by regulatory. Regarding the one -- there's 2 items. One is related to restructuring, then more restructuring happened in December. And the second item is related to site related costs, related to municipality. Those items is giving around IQD 37 billion.

Next question. Any active introducing corporate tax in Qatar in 2025? If so, what kind of percentage would be charged? Any color on this is appreciated.

As to the Iraq, we are discussing this with the tax authority most will be -- it would be around 16%, but the data complementation is not yet finalized by the tax authority and the regulatory.

Next question, when does the management expect to relieve cash proceeds from the asset equalization process? Would it be in tranches or in bulk?

So as mentioned during our Capital Markets Day, also I think during the slides. It will be in tranches as we close different markets. First, our first market builds as an equity contribution and then as the value of our contribution, exceeds the existing value of the assets was in TASC, which is basically Jordan and Iraq, then we will start receiving equalization bids.

The 1.5x net debt to EBITDA you mentioned, we will have after standing the towers and taking into account the PV on the lease obligation does it also accounts for the USD 500 million to USD 600 million in cash you will get from Zain? Also what is the timing of these? Will they be paid in tranches within 6 months to 1 year, which I think it will.

Yes. Without the exact amount, we are going to receive it 100% because it will take 1 or 2 years. We have to bear the income tax in the opcos, and then we will see the dividend. When we highlight this 1.5x, we said it's high an estimation. Again, it depends about the timing of the closing and other items related to the tax gain in each country.

Next question. Are you expecting to raise capital in the near term? So between 2024 to 2025. If yes, will it be in the form of debt. Also, once you start transferring these towers to -- also once you start transferring towers to new entity, do you expect to raise the debt before the full transaction is complete or once all the towers are transferred you will to look at the capital market activity.

So different things. We are always also -- and we had a slide on our debt with currently in short that till 2028 or our maturities are covered easily by our existing facilities. Then again, we are in quite uncertain times in terms of rates. So if we do see a window where rates might be extremely compelling, like we did, by the way, when we preemptively refinanced some of our debt in 2021, which today seems a very good decision. We will probably act on it. As of today, we have no requirement for additional capital. We're definitely not looking to issue any equity. We wouldn't require this. When it comes to the asset transactions, and I'll talk broader than just the towers. Towers and data center, there's different logic, which we expect we explained, but also these are slightly different businesses than the pure top order, averaging businesses and therefore, their capital stack is optimal with a different level of leverage. So over time, as the transaction are closed, their revenue and EBITDA is secured, definitely, we will look to refinance these vehicle to drive optimal returns for our shareholders.

Next question. Do you have any color on the corporate tax in Kuwait?

Again, I think it's like up, up. I think that we are expecting that will give both corporate income tax around 15% timing and the cut off date is not yet announced.

Let's move to audio question from Omar has another question.

So 2 questions for me, please. The first one is a follow-up on the tax issue again in Kuwait and Qatar. Do you see a scenario or are you negotiating with regulatory authorities and saying sort of consultation whereby you could see some sort of a relief on the tax being offset against something else like, for instance, Kuwait, you have the 2 taxes, the NLST and the [indiscernible] pass so I think this jointly are about 5%. So is there a scenario where you could see those being offset against part of the corporate tax and same for Qatar as well?

Maybe I'll take this one. That, of course, of course, as we are a constant discussion with the different authorities, and we are striving to minimize any impact utilized taxation to reload tariff orders. Then the level and the detail of this conversation, I think you'll appreciate still nothing has been agreed or nothing has been done, it's not our place here to discuss them.

Sure. I understand this is Aziz, I appreciate it. But the reason I'm asking is because we saw kind of like sort of a similar scenario in UAE when they were about to implement the 9% corporate tax. I think there was a lot of back and forth discussion with the telecom operators on the potential reduction or review of the royalty to include some sort of deductibility for the -- once the tax is implemented.

Once again, I understand what is your question. We are very aware of what was done in the UAE. We've looked at all the neighboring countries where this has been implemented. We're trying to show precedent. We are in discussion with the authorities in the respective countries where this corporate tax might be implemented in a rule to reduce as much as we can, the impact it would have to the Group and to shareholders. Now as we appreciate, these are ongoing discussions with -- which take time, which are also extremely sensitive. And therefore, as long as we haven't reached a conclusion, we can't share the content of these conversations.

Understood. And then my second question is actually on Qatar's [indiscernible] so, are you starting to see any like early signs of positive impact on growth from the inflow of expats ahead of the Northfield LNG expansion projects?

So I don't know if we can attribute it to the inflow of expats from the Northfield. What we did see, the way I would qualify it, it's probably a start normal. The first couple of quarters post World Cup, there was a slowdown in the general activity within the country. And that's usually symptomatic of any country, which goes through these exceptional events. There's a huge buildup of economic activity prior to the event -- positive event a bit like a recovery time or taking your revenue economy just slightly slow down. What we have seen and you saw it in our reported numbers is towards the end of Q3 and especially in Q4, we're starting to see a pickup in economic connectivity and really we're seeing a share of it.

And what would you attribute it to?

The pickup in activity.

In last 2 quarters, yes, you said at the beginning, you said you're not sure if it's attributable to the expansion of Northfield.

So probably the Northfield have -- I think there's many components. There is also a component, as I explained, is after a significant event like the World Cup there is a bit of a dormant period in the economic cycle of that country post the event. A lot of entities, a lot of government entities, private entities sort of have invested a lot of resources, energy, time and take a breather, and that usually lasts for 2 to 3 quarters, which has been the case in Qatar.

Our next question is by anonymous. How do you plan to gain market share from Korek in Iraq following the regulatory intervention? Any update on the new telecom license tender with 5G exclusivity?

So we, given the regulatory developments on Korek. And as you know, interconnect has been seized between the operators and Korek. There was a natural outflow all subscribers from Korek to both us and Zain, which is our competitor there. We've taken the lion's share of what we believe actually put a proportionate share of that versus our respective market share. Of course, our teams on the ground are commercially active, and we'll seize on any opportunity to try and gain subscribers whatever the events are. What was the second part of the question?

Updates on the new telecom devices tender with 5G?

No. So we've seen the government announcement that again, we are in discussion. We are in discussion with the authorities to get clarity on what are the events. What does that mean? But we have no update. Again, it is -- wasn't that much of a surprising news as it has been announced many times in the past in Iraq. It is one step forward, but that I think there's still a long road to go before this becomes an active competitor.

Any plans to issue bonds in the international markets this year?

I think I've answered that question is we have no requirements, we renewed our RCFs, which gives us full funding to retail our maturities till 2028. Then again, we will try to be opportunistic if we believe that there is an exceptional windows in the rate environment, which would benefit our capital structure and our shareholders.

Do you see competitive environment in your mind stabilizing? Or do you expect further aggressive composition and pricing pressure there? Will be able to maintain our EBITDA margin in your mind? Also, what is your tower strategy?

So with regards to the market, the Oman telecom market, we feel, is overcrowded, and it will stay as such. So the competitive intensity is expected to stay where it is currently. We have put into place measures and activities to kind of maintain and protect the margin in terms of efficiencies as well as in terms of products and go-to-market activities to basically protect our market position there. We're quite optimistic that we can maintain that position. We have growth areas around fixed as well, mobile and ICT and want to basically move forward with this. Good customer experience across the group is a perceived fast a parity. Ooredoo Oman has recently received also awards in this space. So we intend to kind of follow that path moving forward to really keep our customer base happy and loyal to Ooredoo and with this win in the market.

When it comes to the tower transaction, Oman is, of course, a valuable block, a valuable asset, especially when you're talking about creating the leading tower company in the region. We are currently in discussion to see how to get all integrated in the future within our general tower portfolio strategy. That being said, our [ India ] focus right now and priorities, our resources is to close the key markets as discussed previously in the -- I think it was the first question.

Hamed, wants you to please, reanswer the issue around dividens quarterly, if we went into dividend quarter. If we're going to issue dividends quarterly.

We've allowed the flexibility within our association. Please note that dividend policy is not at the discretion of the management. It's under the expression of the Board. So no one around this table has the authority to decide the dividend policy. It's actually your elected representative that decide to which we report to the decided dividend policy of the company.

Next question from anonymous. Your guidance for flat revenues is not because of expected FX headwinds? Why don't you expect growth even though your biggest 2 markets, Qatar and Iraq are expected as per prior comments to register recovery and further growth respectively.

You want to take it or should I? We've historically announced them, even this year, we have announced that we saw the top line nearly flat lining, we actually managed to grow the top line by 2% in a similar way when we look at provisions for the different markets between the different pressures, currency because the inflationary pressure, we do not see material or significant growth on the top line. But our big area of focus is actually growth in profitability. And this is really where we're focusing. And the top line growth is usually more driven by macro events, which are outside of our own control whether the profitability of the company is driven by management. So this is where we're all comfortable to cash.

Another dividend query. The doubling of dividends is in Wataniya this year. Was it mainly because of the number ranges case win? Or do you see that as sustainable?

No, this was exceptional.

From [indiscernible] discuss the outlook for the difficult markets, Oman and Tunisia. This competition becoming more rational in Iran?

I think there is a mistake, maybe they meant Iraq, not Iran.

So in Tunisia, we went through a difficult macro environment. We've seen also our competition in that sense being a base of enough actually had a good last Q3 results, the Q4 results for our competition have not been published. So we can only refer to the Q3 results, where we see a market share stabilization in Tunisia. We have been having stable market share in Tunisia for the last 4 quarters in that sense. But obviously, within the market fluctuation that we have, basically, the top line moves very obviously. In Oman, I mentioned earlier, we believe that the competitive intensity will stay there and that every market participant tries to hopefully act a little bit rational going forward. But we see also fast there are growth opportunities in the fixed market, which is a quite a substantial piece actually of our revenue mix in Oman. This nevertheless comes at a different margin given that it is a wholesale-based business in Oman. So we believe there is growth, but it will come at a different margin structure. Competition in Iraq, will there act more rational? I think we have seen in Iraq a very strong performance of Asiacell over the last couple of quarters. With the recent special events I would call that with the interconnection changes with Korek, we see a substantial inflow of customers where Asiacell benefits from its strong brand, its strong customer experience, and its strong sales and marketing capabilities in the market. So we feel we'll kind of take share as we have seen also that our competition in Zain has taken share. The outcome of the 5G discussion, as Aziz mentioned earlier, is still to be sorted or validated going forward with the respective authorities. So again, we feel well prepared for competing in the Iraq market at rational terms.

Okay. And any price increases across the markets that you see?

We usually look at this in a perspective where we said where we offer more value, we might look at how prices relate to this. There is per se, not in general, a price increase statement? Obviously, where we see opportunities to kind of do a rational pricing or especially with the introduction of new tariffs we do the right things in the interest of also maintaining and keeping our profitability.

Compliment from an analyst. The media management has done an excellent job in turning around the business and maximizing shareholder returns in the past 3 years. Having said that would management consider recommending to the Board to change the dividend policy to be tied with the free cash flow instead of normalized EPS and other telcos do such as Vodafone in Egypt.

So I can't really Vodafone, Egypt has done. And to the first part of your question, in the last 3 years, we took the company's net profit from QAR 900 million to, on a normalized basis, actually QAR 3.2 billion, and our dividend trajectory has followed exactly that it actually puts a redo -- when we look at it in terms of total shareholder return, we were 47th in 2021. We were the leading telco in terms of total shareholder return last year, we were #11 this year. Again I know you mentioned another operator in there. I don't think they made the top 20 so I think that dividend policy [indiscernible].

Let's go to an audio question from Omar.

Yes. Sorry. Just -- I think I just forgot to lower the hand.

Okay. What kind of accounting impact do you sit from the tower deal in terms of margins and EPS accretion or dilution?

So maybe I'll answer very high level and say it, in general, we do believe this is a significant value accretive deal for our shareholders in the short term and the long term. We had shared quite a lot of information at the Capital Markets Day presentation actually a whole section is dedicated on the tower deal and the effect of it. I think the most detailed answer, you could get, is to go into our IR section of our website and pull that presentation it's still out there and you'll have a full breakdown of the transaction. I don't know if you want to add that.

No. I think we highlight the most important things is for the effect on the net leverage, it might be around, we said around 1.5x. And at that time, we disclosed a full details I agree with you if you go to the -- our website you'll find more details about the projection for tower [indiscernible].

[indiscernible] again. Is there any deadline for the Myanmar sales to materialize before the deal becomes void due to the lack of regulatory approval, any chance to settle for a lower price?

So internal deadline was yesterday and before yesterday, before, before yesterday. Maybe a couple of things. If you look at the performance that that's the silver lining, the performance of Myanmar in operation, actually, has been very strong in the past 2 years even on a fresh capital basis as we've kept it on bare minimum CapEx, the operation has been doing very, very well. We are pending on one regulatory approval. We are following, are constantly with the authorities, I'm sorry. I know of this, we will like a bit of credibility because probably last year, at the same time, I said, we're expecting to close within the first half of this year. A year later I'm repeating the same thing, but we have 0 notion. The deal is still out there. We had actually, as we received preliminary approvals and the telecom regulatory approvals, we have renewed an extension of the transaction. So the transaction has no risk of becoming void for the time being.

Great. I don't see any more questions coming up. Oh, another anonymous. I'm glad to see the plastic water bottles disappeared. Thank you for noticing. We thank Andreas for your long service and support. We on the South side appreciate it. Best of luck. Well thank you. In carrying the torch, finally thanks for the call and that Ooredoo management keeps on delivering.

Thank you Anonymous.

So there's no more questions. Our Q1 results please take note are scheduled for release at the end of April. Please feel free to send the Investor Relation team any questions you may have after the Q call.

I was going to say exactly the same thing. I think we all wanted to thank Andreas for his contribution, 12 years. He's also spearheaded probably every single major IPO that Ooredoo has done. He's spearheaded also the TowerCos. Thank you very much for all your close interaction with us, of course, but especially with our teams and all the awards you won in terms of IR. Thank you.

Thank you very much for the management but also to the investors, the fund managers and the analysts on the sense. I really enjoyed the interaction and hope we stay in touch in the future. Thank you.

That concludes our 2023 investor call. Thank you.