etisalat Profit Jumps 45.9% to $4.7B After Completing Vodafone Sale
The UAE telecom group's nine-month net profit reached $4.7 billion, helped by a $6 billion disposal that also lifted quarterly results.
etisalat reported nine-month net profit of $4.7 billion (AED 17.2 billion), up 45.9% year on year, after the UAE telecom group completed the sale of its entire Vodafone stake.
The disposal raised $6 billion (AED 21.9 billion), including a final dividend and a gain of about $2.2 billion (AED 8 billion). etisalat said the Vodafone sale contributed to quarterly performance and gave it additional financial flexibility.
Third-quarter revenue was $5.3 billion (AED 19.5 billion), up 6.9%. Nine-month revenue reached $15.7 billion (AED 57.6 billion), 10% higher. Third-quarter EBITDA rose 5.1% to $2.5 billion (AED 9 billion) at a 46.1% margin; nine-month EBITDA was $7.3 billion (AED 26.7 billion), up 10.3%, at 46.4%.
The company, formerly listed as e&, credited progress in higher-value capabilities across connectivity, sovereign digital infrastructure and AI, plus disciplined portfolio management. Total subscribers reached 254.8 million in the third quarter, up 29.4%. UAE subscribers rose 5.2% to 16.5 million, supported by demand for advanced digital services and intelligent connectivity.
Group CEO Masood M. Sharif Mahmood said the results reflect strength in the core connectivity business and disciplined execution. Deeper AI integration in enterprise and government operations, he said, makes foundational connectivity, compute and secure infrastructure more critical. Connectivity now enables the digital economy through infrastructure and intelligent platforms, not just the movement of data.
etisalat aims to become a leading AI-powered and enabling telecom operator, drawing on digital services, cloud, cybersecurity, AI, infrastructure and fintech. It plans international connectivity capacity above 500 terabits per second by 2030, more than 25 times current capacity, along diverse routes meant to improve efficiency, reliability and low-latency performance. Digital infrastructure, the company said, is a fundamental pillar for emerging technologies and for a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy.
e& ranked 13th on a 2026 list of the 100 most valuable companies, and Mahmood placed first in the technology and telecom category of a 2026 sustainability leaders list.
The Vodafone gain flatters the headline number, not the recurring one. Strip it out and growth came from operations, where revenue and EBITDA each rose about 10% across the nine months. The 2030 capacity target is the next test: capacity on that scale requires capital spending that will weigh on the margins etisalat reports today.
