du lifts profit 12.6% and pushes capex into data centres
Net profit rose 12.6 percent in the first half of 2026, the interim dividend went up 8.3 percent, and capital spending is pointed at data centres and a pending hyperscaler deal.
du closed the first half of 2026 with net profit up 12.6 percent and an EBITDA margin of 49.2 percent, 2.1 percentage points wider than a year earlier. Capital expenditure rose 12.7 percent over the same period.
That spending is directed at a data centre programme and a hyperscaler partnership the company says is close. Operating free cash flow still grew 9.7 percent despite the heavier investment, and the board lifted the interim dividend by 8.3 percent.
An operator that no longer describes itself as one
Chief executive Fahad Al Hassawi frames the company as an "integrated digital enabler" rather than a telecom operator, and puts customer trust at the centre of how it competes. Trust, in his account, covers the network, the customer relationship, the digital platforms built on top and the capabilities that hold them together.
The company works from an internal framework that sorts activities into two buckets: where it should differentiate itself, and where buying in capability creates more value than building it. It partners with technology providers across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and data centres.
"We have a clear internal framework to guide us on how we differentiate, and where collaboration delivers more value," Al Hassawi said.
Less visible is the internal work. Al Hassawi said du invests heavily in how employees think, innovate and respond to customers, and that a more agile, collaborative culture takes sustained and deliberate effort rather than a single programme.
Ventures, and the gap that is not awareness
du Ventures was set up to hand promising companies access to the operator's infrastructure, enterprise reach and customer base, with the stated aim of shortening the distance between an idea and a business that can sell.
Al Hassawi said the UAE has already assembled an extensive ecosystem of infrastructure, funding and support for small businesses and startups. The shortfall, in his view, is the speed at which companies adopt technology. Implementation at smaller firms slows for practical reasons: limited resources, competing priorities, appetite for risk, and uncertainty over where to begin. du runs education programmes on digital tools aimed at productivity and sustainability.
Growth spending and the cash test
Al Hassawi links the strategy to national priorities on digital infrastructure, sovereign cloud and innovation, describing the data centre and Ventures spending as "investing into the direction the country is moving." He is also firm that strategic bets cannot come at the cost of financial discipline, or near-term results at the cost of the investments that shape the company's future. Operating free cash flow is the number he watches to confirm growth is funded from strength.
The balance is easier to state than to hold. Capex growing faster than operating cash flow would signal strain; this half, cash flow rose while capex rose faster, and the dividend rose too.
Al Hassawi expects more government-led initiatives, more partnerships and more opportunity outside plain connectivity. Connectivity stays at the core, with AI, cloud, digital platforms and intelligent services carrying the value on top of it. The data centre programme, the hyperscaler deal in the pipeline and du Ventures are the early markers. In a few years, he said, du should be understood as an integrated digital enabler built on world-class connectivity.
