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

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Welcome to Ooredoo Group's full year results call for the year ended 31st December 2024. My name is Luelle Pillay, and I'm the Head of Investor Relations here at Ooredoo Group. Today's presentation is divided into 3 parts. First, our CEO, Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo will begin with an overview of 2024, highlighting the key milestones to be achieved throughout the year. And thereafter, he will present the consolidated results. Following Aziz, our Group CFO, Abdulla Al Zaman, will provide an in-depth review of the operational performance across the 9 markets. Lastly, Aziz will return to provide a brief outlook on the opportunities, initiatives and strategies that we are focused on for the year ahead. We aim to keep this session concise to allow enough time for your questions at the end. [Operator Instructions] For your reference, the presentation slides are available on our website at ooredoo.com, and they're also accessible on this webcast. The session is being recorded and transcribed, so by attending today's [indiscernible] recording and transcription of the event. You'll also find the usual disclaimer on Slide #2. And with that, I will hand over to Aziz to begin the presentation.

Good afternoon, everyone. 2024 was a year of progress and record growth. We delivered a strong financial performance, made strategic advances across a number of fronts and continue to drive sustainable value creation. Normalized net profit crossed the $1 billion mark. Our highest net profit yet, our leverage sits below the Board guidance. We're in the healthy liquidity positions. And in terms of how we fared looking at our 2024 guidance targets, we exceeded expectation on revenue. We were in line with our EBITDA margin and CapEx spend. Sustained top line growth delivered a revenue increase of 2%, so double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth in our high-growth markets, Iraq and Algeria, maintaining a strong growth trajectory. We successfully closed the sale of our Myanmar operation. We collaborated with NVIDIA to become a cloud partner, or NCP, and we're developing an AI-ready platform, which will be powered by NVIDIA Advanced Technologies. Continued our journey to become the region's leading digital infrastructure provider of choice by carving out our data centers in Qatar, Tunisia and Kuwait and appointed a CEO for the Data Center business. Under fintech, we remain the market leader in Qatar and obtained a PSP license in Oman, Maldives and recently in Tunisia. We also launched the Mobile Money app called walletii and executed successful long-term financing transaction securing just over $1 billion through a bond and loan demonstrating market confidence in Ooredoo's financial strength and outlook. The Board recommended a dividend QAR 65, up by 18% year-on-year. We're pleased to be amongst the leading telecom in the Gulf to see an increase in share price in 2024. Additionally, in the year, we completed an organizational restructure, appointing Sheikh Naseer Al Thani as Group Regional CEO for the Middle East to ensure we have the right structure in place to deliver on our financial and strategic objectives. Turning to 2024 performance, another year of strong growth driven by sustained operational momentum and improved financial position. The key financial highlights for the full year showed growth in all key metrics, a 2% increase in revenue to QAR 23.6 billion. EBITDA grew by 3% to QAR 10 billion. EBITDA margin increased by 1 percentage point, ending at 42.5%. Generated free cash flows of QAR 6.8 billion. We had a robust fourth quarter, as you can see from the slide. Looking at revenue, we delivered a solid growth fueled by the robust operation performance. Our full year revenue was up by 2%. This was driven by our operations in Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Tunisia and Maldives, all of which maintained their growth trajectory through the year. Revenue for Q4 was flat and was impacted by lower turnover in Oman, which was affected by an increase in competitive mobile market. We delivered a strong EBITDA performance with an industry-leading margin thanks to our focus on driving efficiency across the group. On a full year basis, we grew EBITDA by 3%. On a normalized basis, it was up by 4%. We achieved a solid EBITDA margin of 42.5% up by 1 full percentage point. Oman's Q4 EBITDA was impacted by lower revenue and higher operational costs, while Qatar's EBITDA was impacted by pressure on its gross margin. Kuwait's Q4 EBITDA was impacted by a one-off bad debt provision. Now turning to net profit. Full year net profit numbers was at an all-time high for the group. Reported net profit increased by 14% on a reported basis to QAR 3.4 billion. On a normalized basis, growth was up 12% to QAR 3.7 billion. As previously mentioned, we have now surpassed the $1 billion worth of net profit. These numbers are a testament to our efforts in driving profitability and efficiency across the business. At the bottom of the slide, you can see the bridge between reported and normalized net profit. Turning to net profit in Q4, we delivered an impressive growth on a reported basis of 46% and 4% on a normalized basis. Our CapEx spend grew by 13% during 2024. On this theme, it's been pleasing to see that we have consistently improved return on capital employed. And since 2020, we have almost doubled our return on our CapEx, outperforming our regional peers in this area. We ended the year with a strong free cash flow generation of QAR 6.8 billion, increasing by 1% on a normalized basis, demonstrating the group's strong financial health and operational discipline. The strong EBITDA performance was supported by an increase in capital expenditure as we continue to make strategic investment towards the growth demands of our telecom operation. We attracted more customers, thanks to our best-in-class network and top of quality customer experience. Including IOH, and excluding Myanmar, we closed the year off with just over 146 million customers. The group is in a very healthy financial position with historically low debt levels. This slide reiterates the group's strong financial position. Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio stands at 0.4x well below the Board's guidance of 1.5 and 2.5x. We maintain a healthy liquidity position, a combination of cash and committed undrawn facilities. We have QAR 5.6 billion, circa $1.5 billion equivalent in on-road committed facilities, primarily available at the group level in USD. We have a balanced and long-term maturity profile. We have a minimal interest rate risk with 92% fixed rate debt share. S&P and Moody's maintained investment-grade rating for the group. Turning to shareholder value. We have driven higher returns, which we pass on to our shareholders. Our dividend policy is sustainable and progressive and aims for a dividend payout between 40% to 60% of normalized earnings. For 2024, the Board has recommended a dividend of QAR 65 per share, a dividend yield of 5.04%, representing an 18% increase over 2023 at 58% payout ratio. The trajectory of the dividend payment has been strong and progressive over the past 5 years. We have had a healthy dividend payout with a cumulative increase of 160% since 2020, highlighting the value we have generated for our shareholders over these years. Back to Abdulla for the operations review.

Thank you, Aziz. Good afternoon, everyone. I will take you through the group year-on-year operational performance, highlighting key achievements and the progress made through the year 2024 financials. Starting with our home market in Qatar, we saw a robust financial performance despite a high competitive environment. Full year reported revenue decreased by 2% due to the base effect carried from 2023 of a higher revenue from data center and one-off project. On a normalization basis, revenue decreased by 1% due to lower mobile service and device sales. On a normalized basis, EBITDA was 1% lower, Q4 EBITDA was lower due to pressure on gross margin. Reported EBITDA margin stood at 52%, which placed Ooredoo Qatar at industry-leading position for its profitability. Customer base remained stable at 3 million. Moving to Kuwait, we saw a solid underlying performance driven by strategic focus on innovation and customer experience. Revenue grew by 7%, thanks to higher service revenue from data and digital services as well as equipment revenue. EBITDA decreased by 14%, impacted by one-off bad debt provision recorded in 2024. Normalizing for one-off provision, EBITDA remained flat, and we continue to see healthy growth in the customer base, which grew by 2% to 2.9 million. In Oman, our team continued to navigate a higher competitive market while maintaining financial discipline. Revenue decreased by 3%, mainly due to lower mobile and fixed revenue. EBITDA decreased by 6%, impacted by pressure on top line and higher operating costs. EBITDA margin remained resilient at 46%. We expected the launch of new 5G initiatives to stabilize performance for the year 2025. In Iraq, Asiacell was among the best performers in our portfolio, delivering an impressive performance owed to the investment on the network higher customer acquisition and a healthy performance on the data segment against the back drop of the favorable market condition. Full year revenue grew by 16%, thanks to strong customer growth and increased uptake on the data services. EBITDA increased by 22%, while margin expanded by 2% points to strong 46%. Quarter 4 EBITDA and margin was impacted by one-off costs incurred. Customer base increased by 8% to reach 19.1 million customers. Turning to Ooredoo Algeria, another high-performance market within the group. The operation benefited from strategic investment in the network expansion and digitalization. The customer base grew by 10% to 14.7 million, signaling a strong marketing position. We saw strong momentum in revenue up to 15%, thanks to solid growth in data and digital revenue. Quarter 4 EBITDA and margin was impacted by one-off costs incurred. EBITDA for the year expanded by 21%, while a 2% point increase in margin to 42%. Ooredoo Tunisia returned to growth this year with a solid financial and operational performance. The operation benefited from target investment in a fixed business to meet a strong demand in the market. Revenue increased by 5% on the back of good growth across most services segment. Normalized EBITDA increased by 6%, benefiting from top line growth and cost efficiency. The operation recorded a solid EBITDA margin, which increased by 4 percentage points to 42%. Turning to Maldives. We continue to see a healthy growth and robust financial performance supported by our market-leading position and investment in the market. We achieved a 5% revenue growth, supported by a 3% increase on the customer base. EBITDA increased by 2% driven by healthy top line growth, offset it partially by higher operational costs. EBITDA margin remained impressive at 55%. In Palestine, we are proud of our team on the ground who have demonstrated unwavering commitment to their customer, employee and community while delivering resilient performance. Customer base grew by 8% to 1.6 million. Revenue remained flat in 2024, while EBITDA decreased by 6%. EBITDA margin stood at 37% for the year. IOH results showed another successful year for the company. Revenue grew by 9% with the impressive growth in EBITDA of 10% while maintaining a 47% EBITDA margin. This concludes my operations review. Back to Aziz for the outlook. Thank you very much.

After successfully navigating 2024, we now shift our focus to the future. Building on our strong position and on the momentum we have gained, we remain focused on continuing our success. I'll spend a few minutes highlighting some of the focus areas that will drive our growth in these years ahead. We have kicked off the year strong, securing 2 key strategic partnerships that will accelerate the growth of our sea cable and data center businesses. In January, we announced our partnership with Alcatel Submarine Networks to build a new submarine cable connecting countries in the region. This aligns with Ooredoo's strategy to lead in the digital infrastructure by expanding networks capacity and interconnectivity across the GCC and beyond. Recently, we announced our partnership with Iron Mountain to leapfrog the growth in our MENA digital hub. Iron Mountain has a vast industry knowledge and strategic expertise to provide us with services related to the design, construction and daily operations of our data centers. The partnership will initially focus on the operational support, infrastructure enhancement and support our plans to further expand the data center's capacity. This partnership will enable Ooredoo to expand its MENA footprint of hyperscalers and AI data centers infrastructure, combining the strengths of the company's local development and operational track record with Iron Mountain's global operational expertise. Looking ahead, we are confident in our strategic direction and our ability to continue driving growth and delivering value to all our stakeholders. We aim to sustain operational and financial momentum by retaining high-value customers, making targeted investments in utilizing AI to drive operational and capital efficiencies. Continuing to strengthen the core will remain a key area of focus. We'll do this by maintaining a leading position in our current market while seeking opportunities to drive value creation. We will continue to scale our Fintech business and finalize the closing of towers in each market. We anticipate closing our Qatar by the half year. We remain focused on accelerating the expansion of our data centers. The opportunity to leverage Iron Mountain's expertise and to partner with a global leader will accelerate our efforts. Lastly, look at expanding our efforts in subsea cable system to become a global connectivity player. We have already taken significant steps through our partnership with Alcatel Submarine Networks securing a submarine cable that will link all GCC countries and Iraq in high-capacity loop. As we continue to focus on the strategic initiative, we are well on our way to solidify our position as the region's leading digital infrastructure provider. To conclude, looking at our performance against our guidance targets and outlining our expectations for the 2025 financial year. From a revenue perspective, we exceeded our expectations, delivering a 2% uplift better than the guidance of a flat revenue performance. Our EBITDA margin performance of QAR 42.5 million was in line with our guidance of delivering in the low 40s. In terms of CapEx, we met expectations. For 2025, we maintain similar guidance expecting revenue to grow by 2% to 3% for the full year, with revenue growth in most of our opcos in local currency. On EBITDA, we expect to have an EBITDA margin in the low 40s with a strong focus on cost control. Lastly, on CapEx, given our strategic focus on data center and subsea cable, as 2 areas with attractive growth prospects. Our CapEx spend will increase to between QAR 4.5 billion to QAR 5 billion. That concludes my section of the presentation. And now Luelle for Q&A.

Thank you very much, Aziz and Abdulla. We have now reached the Q&A segment of today's call. [Operator Instructions] For the Q&A segment, I'm joined by senior leadership team, together with Aziz and Abdulla, we have Eyas Assaf, our Deputy CFO; and Rene Werner, our Head of Strategy. So let's open the floor to questions. Our first question comes from Nishit Lakhotia from Seco Bank.

I have a couple of questions. First, on the Qatar operations. I see some pressure in your home market and it seems like you are losing some market share to your competitor even this year. And you mentioned pressure on gross margins as well. So if you can give some color on how -- what do we expect going forward in your home market? And what was the bad debts regarding? And how much was it in 2024 in Qatar? If you can give some highlight on that, that would be helpful. And the second question is on the CapEx. So there are 2 major investments outside of the core telecom that you are doing in terms of subsea cable and data centers, and there is a sizable pickup in CapEx for next year. So how much do you intend to spend within the data centers and subsea cable for FY '25? And if you can give some color out of this QAR 4.5 billion to QAR 5 billion and where -- what exactly is your data center capacity currently? Because we know that you want to become -- the capacity has to increase [ 120% ] in the coming years, so where is it right now?

I'll start with Qatar. Actually, for Qatar, if you look from a revenue market share, we actually gained for the year all holistically. We have a strong growth in B2B and Qatar, and we were flat on the consumer side. So I don't see where you see some decline in terms of revenue market share. Yes, subscriber base, we're gaining slightly less than the market growth, but we focus on value customers -- high-value customers. And that's why -- but overall, we actually gained in terms of revenue market share in Qatar. In terms of bad debt provisions in Qatar, I think these are related and I'll let my finance team -- these are related to legacy B2B bad debt provisions, which we've written off, right. And there were provisions, we just cleared the provision as we believe there's no recourse to recuperate our revenues for these old legacy B2B accounts. What were the other?

CapEx splits between subsea and data...

So maybe it's -- maybe again my colleagues from finance can give a bit more color. If you look at the pure telco operation, our CapEx run rate is exactly the same as the previous year. We're targeting around 13% to 14%. The remaining, as you rightfully identified, is going through data centers and subsea cable. The exact staggering of this depends on the speed of deployment and execution. These are multiyear construction contracts where payments are staggered against delivery. But if you run the numbers, this should give you a sense of guidance. In terms of -- in terms of data center, we've said historically, we've committed around $1 billion of CapEx over the next couple of -- next few years to bring our capacity from existing installed capacity, which is circa around 40 megawatts, to 120 megawatts, so that's a times 3, and that's excluding and -- and this is mainly cloud-native data center and is excluding any major AI native data centers. In terms of the subsea cable holistically, we can't give numbers for specific contracts. Holistically, we're targeting to spend roughly $400 million over the next couple of years on a variety of new cables.

Our next question comes from Alessandra David from Ashmore.

Congratulations on the results. I just had 2 questions. One of them was following up from the previous question about your existing data center capacity. If you're able to disclose how many megawatts you currently have or within the market or what's currently in construction, that would be really helpful? And my second question was on the fixed line segment in Qatar. You've been losing customers in the segment, and that's sort of been identified by your competitors where they think they can have a competitive edge. So I was just kind of curious if there's a strategy on sort of rectifying this?

So again, I thought I answered it in the previous question. My mistake. I said roughly, currently, we have around 40 megawatts of installed capacity around our footprint. We are going through expansion programs. I am not 100% sure we can actually disclose the numbers of what we're currently building. So if you don't mind, we'll double check internally with our data center unit and our B2B to make sure we can, and I'm very happy to disclose these numbers. Maybe another data point, which is more important that how much installed capacity we have is how much available capacity we have. And that's -- we're currently running at close to 98%, 99% utilization rate. So we're running at full capacity as I previously said, I think in previous earning calls or an interview, we can't build them fast enough to satisfy the demand. So it's a good problem to have, but it's still a problem, especially these are projects with long lead time. You're talking about 18 to 24 months for full build between permitting, design, engineering and construction phase if everything goes well. What was the second question?

That was fixed line segment?

So yes, fixed line, yes, there is a decline in fixed line, but I think what is extremely important is to look where was our starting point in terms of market share until around 3 years ago. We were running at roughly 90% market share in Qatar on fixed line. So the fact that there's some attrition and today, we're still above 80% market share. The fact that there is some attrition is absolutely normal. It's impossible to retain such a market share in any given market, especially that when you have such a market share, the regulator puts you in a dominant position. So it gives advantages to your competition. So therefore, we do believe some attrition on the fixed line business. Despite that, it's quite slow attrition because our -- we believe our service quality is exceptional or premium service. But yes, defending a position of 90% market share is close to impossible unless if we would be ready to close to maybe erode our own market.

We have a few typed questions from Ankit Bansal. How much CapEx is required to roll out 5G in Oman?

Our 5G rollout in Oman is close to complete. We just do a bit of a few additional sites where we need to increase coverage and we see revenue streams and some regulatory imposed deployments, but the major bulk of the 5G rollout is actually -- was completed last year.

[ Nikhil ], can we know your views on the remaining penalty charges in Iraq and Palestine?

Do you want to take this?

The main [indiscernible]. There are 2 types of penalities involved in Iraq in '24. One is related to the quality standards, which is coverage is around QAR 90 million. And the other one related to the old case between [ HSL ] and the regulatory regarding the [ regulatory ] fees. If you remember, this is an old case, we settled the principal amount in '21 and now the regulatory is claiming for that penalty on the delay payment, even that we won the case in the civil court but the regulatory interest. So being conservative, we get the amount, we expense the amount, but we're still following up with the court to get back this money. But being conservative, with this expense amount, which is QAR 215 million.

Yes. The next 2 questions are also from Ankit Bansal. What is the market share of Vodafone in Oman and where do you think it will stabilize? Is Ooredoo's ARPU in Oman likely to stabilize in Oman in 2025, given Vodafone will be completing 3 years in Oman?

So I think, please correct me, it's around 8% to 10%.

Total revenue market share fixed and mobile combined of Vodafone is 3.5% to 4%. Currently, there's still the disclosure of Q4 missing.

But on mobile, they're around 8%, 9%.

8% to 9% customer market share.

Yes. So to 8% to 9%, we believe that when we see the evolution, they're starting to stabilize at that level. We're doing all we can to preserve first our value and also our customers. When it comes to ARPU, going forward, we are hoping for some discipline in the market. But again, it's a 3-player market, and we're not protected from some significant ARPU erosion moves from our competitor till now, we've seen -- we've stayed very disciplined not to erode our own base.

Next question is, what is the expected impact of Vodafone's entry in Iraq on Ooredoo's ARPU market share and EBITDA margins?

Well, we're following this file very closely. There's still quite a lot of -- there's still quite a lot of missing information, let's say it as this, there are a strong signal that a fourth operator is coming in. At the same time, we've also seen that there is some opposition in the country. So we're not really sure where it stands. We are also doing our full case study. We've learned with the introduction of Vodafone in Qatar, Vodafone in Oman, introduction of STC in Kuwait. So we have quite a lot of knowledge on how to protect ourselves, how to defend our position, but we don't see anything forthcoming in the near future.

Last one from Ankit, how much data center capacity are you planning to add in Qatar in the next 5 years?

We will easily increase our capacity mostly by -- we're confident increasing Qatar by around 60% to 80%, if not more, in the coming years.

Thank you. Let's go to Ziad Itani from Arqaam Capital.

Congratulations on the strong results. Just a couple of questions from our end. First, on the top line growth guidance for 2025 of 2% to 3%. Last year, you were a bit more conservative expecting flat growth, now and despite the fact that you sold the Myanmar, which was contributing between 3% to 4% of top line and this was persistent for 5 months last year, you're expecting faster growth?

So we're not expecting faster growth. I think historically, we've been quite conservative with our growth guidance. Every year, we said flat. And every year, we ended up growing by 2% to 3%. So this year, we sort of flipped it. We say, look, we -- instead of being conservative, we'll give slightly a more aggressive target, which is good for us and good for our operation as well. Again, holistically, maybe it's not an answer which you will 100% like, but it's really the guidance. We're not focused on revenue at all cost. We're focused on good profitable revenue. This is really our more -- our biggest guidance. And I think our last year's performance and again today's results, what we want is revenues that drive enhanced profitability. This is really what is at the center of our strategy. Growing the top line is, of course, part of that strategy, but it's also delivering more on efficiencies.

Okay. So -- but is it safe to assume that this growth will also be driven by data centers and cable connectivity more than the traditional telco business?

For next year, the contribution of cable business, no, because it will still be in the CapEx phase. We're not expecting the delivery of the first cable till late 2027. So there won't be any impact for the next 2 years before you see some significant revenue contribution from that business. Data centers, as I said, build-outs tend to take around 18 months. We have some incremental capacity upgrades. So this should generate revenue, but it will be de minimis. Most of the growth, which is scheduled is from consumer and B2B.

All right. That's very clear. And the second question is with regards to the number ranges case in Kuwait. We've seen this resurface again, even though you've won the case, and I assume you got paid. Can you give us a bit of details what's the latest on this? Are you going to take any provisions?

No. We got paid, we won the case. We were a bit surprised as you are. But currently, we don't see any legitimacy to that. So we're not even provisioning.

So we got a typed question from HSBC, Pradyumna Mishra. Why was Iraq so weak in Q4 in terms of revenue growth and as well as EBITDA margins?

Yes. Quarter 4 revenue had this normal trend. However, quarter 3 had its one-off. And quarter 3 had its costs incurred due to higher revenue where the costs associated with lease line costs and high network costs.

Next question is how much or when are you getting cash from Zain for the tower deal?

That's a question we all like to answer. We're pending -- we're going through the regulatory approval process. We were very optimistic we could close this regulatory approval process sooner rather than later. That being said, we have built into our agreements with Zain quite some long lead time because history had told us, I think the first tower deal, which was Zain IHS in Kuwait, took 3 years to close the TowerCo in Saudi close to 2 years to close Omantel, Helios took 2 years to close. A lot of the markets we're operating, including Qatar, are markets where no tower companies exist. We're going through the regulatory approval process with which includes multiple agencies. We've covered close to all agencies. We have a few regulatory approvals pending, very few hope -- we're quite hopeful we should get that done ASAP.

And then his last question is how much minority stake Iron Mountain is acquiring and at what valuation?

So look, the Iron Mountain deal, first, we're extremely pleased with this deal and strategic partnership, which will allow to accelerate our data center strategy, and we believe that Iron Mountain is probably one of the premier partners we could have found. That being said, the way that the disclosure is not that straightforward because the transaction in itself is not straightforward. We've decided to -- and in part because of the lessons we've learned with TowerCo as well to split the transaction in a 2-stage part 1, which is an investment in what we call a [indiscernible] which is part of our data center company that will provide design, engineering, operation and commercialization know-how to the data center companies and that's the first stage. And over time, within the 3 to 5 years horizon maximum, there's a full roll-up of all the assets within that vehicle. And at that point, the crystallization of the value will be defined. It also allows us to grow the business before full crystallization of the value. To give you a sense, if you have some of that, we gave some valuation guidelines during our Capital Market Day, I think these are good pointers to this, where we should end up with this transaction.

The next question from Lee Beswick. Your dividend policy was designed at a time where net debt was in excess of QAR 20 billion. Now net debt is getting close to 0. Our 40% to 60% payout policy looks inappropriate. Is it time to recommend to the Board to revise the target upwards?

First of all, you did mention the most important word, it is Board. This is management has it say, of course, has its recommendation, but this is a Board matter. Also a few pointers. Within the last 4 years, we increased our dividend by 160%. We also -- that's the first part Second part, we're paying at the top of the range. Third part, there's a flow-through between dividend and capital appreciation. If you look at our share price, our share price has also significantly appreciated over that horizon. We've nearly doubled the value since 2021 to date, we were close to a $6 billion company, slightly shy of a $6 billion company in January 2021, as of January 2025. We're close shy of a $12 billion company. So you understand how enterprise value function of net debt and cash functions. So we leave with this at the purview of the Board. Also, as you can see, we're going through organic growth phase where we're deploying more CapEx in new significant growth area, having some dry powder is not a bad thing. Last point, our dividend is around the 5% mark, which puts it towards the top of the range, at least in terms of regional peers in the ballpark for most telecoms.

Okay. Thank you, Aziz. Moving to Algeria, with respect to the Algeria market, we see a Q-on-Q drop in revenue and EBITDA margin. Is this seasonality effect? Or do we see the growth normalizing in Algeria? That's from [ Mohith ].

Actually, quarter-on-quarter, it's a seasonal impact. As you know, the third quarter in Algeria is big season. And if you compare it to Q4 last year, there we see growth of 12%. So it's only Q3 seasonality. And the EBITDA margin also has been affected at one time cost equivalent to QAR 1 billion. If you normalize for the cost, the EBITDA margin is 45%. We don't see anything abnormal.

And our next question is from Rashid Anwar. What are the key strategic priorities for Ooredoo Qatar over the next 12 to 24 months?

I think Ooredoo Qatar has significant strategic priorities. One is to consolidate its position and to maintain the revenue share in the market to drive higher value and higher ARPU through a market that's on the consumer side. There's also a lot of strides on the B2B and enterprise side. If you've seen already in 2024, our enterprise business in Qatar has grown by nearly 9.5%, so there's a lot of focus on this customer excellence and customer satisfaction and positioning Ooredoo Qatar as the premier -- premium operator of choice is extremely important, plus Ooredoo Qatar is instrumental in supporting the group in this initiative, whether it's in fintech or adjacency initiatives, whether it's in fintech or data center.

Then our last typed question from [ Nikhil ], what were these financial asset impairment charges of around QAR 300 million during 2024?

This is related to bad debt provision. Actually, this year has improved versus last year, it was QAR 400 million this year, it's QAR 300 million.

Thank you, Abdulla. We have a hand raise from Nishit Lakhotia.

I just have 2 questions, 1 on the Iraq operations. Last year, there was a benefit from the interconnect services that were stopped to Korek customers. What's the situation now? And do you think Iraq in general will now see a single digit to mid-digit growth going forward? Or you will still expect the overall operations to grow much higher than any other operations that you have in your cost? So given the 5G launch is also awaited. So in general, what's your view of Iraq and the interconnection issue with Korek? That's on Iraq. And second on Tunisia, it's done well, but you -- there's again a goodwill impairment this year. So is it like a normalization of -- you have a lot of goodwill for Tunisia, so I mean, this year, despite operation doing well, there was the impairment. So how do we see that? Will it be done like every year in fourth quarter in a step-by-step or staggered fashion?

So concerning Iraq, we still see it as a core market of growth. Iraq is a developing country. As you know, in a way, and so oversimplified. And of course, there's operational excellence above that. But in a way, telecom has for a proxy the underlying GDP growth. Iraq is developing very fast. It's just oil-based economy, which is benefited over the last few years from sustained high oil price and we don't see this subduing right now. When it comes to Korek situation, we have no news or no information that would show any shift in position coming to the interconnect. So long answer short, we're still very bullish on Iraq in the short to medium term. Now in the long term, of course, I wish -- of course, sustaining high teens growth year-on-year is something which is usually impossible in any telecom market. But we don't -- we don't see a major slowdown coming up, at least in the next year ahead, and that applies for Iraq and Algeria, apart from unexpected situations, but this is part of -- within what we can foresee and control. We do believe that the growth can be sustained. What was the second question? Yes.

In terms of Tunisia value and the goodwill, I need just to confirm that we are very conservative in terms of measuring what is a lot good value versus the performance. And this is in line with our external auditor today. And we have also done an impairment this year or 2024 on Tunisia book, but this is on continuing watch with us and the external auditor.

And we see a major improvement to last year, which was around QAR 500 million. This year, it's only QAR 100 million. We hope that the performance and the economies of recovery, which will help us to avoid this impairment..

The last typed question is from Rashid Anwar. What KPIs should investors track to assess Ooredoo Qatar's success in the coming quarters?

It depends on what kind of investor you are, long-term investor, value investor. I think if you look at Ooredoo Group as a whole, the key KPIs we focus on, at least financial KPIs, one is free cash flow and free cash flow conversion, return on invested capital and of course, profitability, gross margin, EBITDA and net profit. These are major KPIs we focus on. And then in terms of operational KPIs, we have a slew of KPIs from network quality to customer satisfaction, voice of the customer. And of course, the typical telco KPIs, revenue market share, we have more -- a higher focus on EBITDA market share because we believe in profitability. So I'm not really sure what answer to give you here.

I think it's a good answer. So I don't see any more questions. So since there are no further questions, I'd like to thank you for joining Ooredoo's Group's FY 2024 results call. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to investor relations team. Thank you very much.

Thank you.