Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates — Emirati telecommunications group etisalat grew its consolidated net profit by 45.9% to approximately $4.68 billion (AED 17.2 billion) in the first nine months of 2026, with a one-off gain of about $2.18 billion (AED 8.0 billion) from its Vodafone exit doing much of the lifting.
Third-quarter revenue climbed 6.9% year on year to about $5.31 billion (AED 19.5 billion), according to results the group released this week. Over nine months, revenue reached roughly $15.68 billion (AED 57.6 billion), a 10.0% increase that the company described as a record performance for the period.
Net profit for the July to September quarter came to approximately $3.05 billion (AED 11.2 billion), against about $817 million (AED 3.0 billion) a year earlier, an increase of 276.2%. Earnings per share rose to around $0.35 (AED 1.29) from about $0.09 (AED 0.34). etisalat credited its progress in adding higher-value capabilities in connectivity, sovereign digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence, along with disciplined management of its portfolio.
Stripping out the Vodafone gain gives a more modest picture. On that basis, quarterly net profit was about $871 million (AED 3.2 billion), with earnings of about $0.10 (AED 0.37) a share, and nine-month profit was roughly $2.51 billion (AED 9.2 billion), or about $0.29 (AED 1.06) a share. The earnings release filed with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) puts the adjusted quarterly rise at 7%, driven by higher EBITDA, lower depreciation and amortization and more dividend income, which outweighed a smaller share of associates' results and a higher Federal Royalty.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) grew 5.1% in the quarter to about $2.45 billion (AED 9.0 billion), a margin of 46.1%. For the nine months, it rose 10.3% to approximately $7.27 billion (AED 26.7 billion) at a 46.4% margin. Quarterly operating expenses rose 8.0% to about $2.07 billion (AED 7.6 billion), which the group tied to inflation, higher energy prices feeding into network costs, and the consolidation of Telenor Pakistan and UPC Slovakia.
The customer base expanded 29.4% from a year earlier to 254.8 million. In the UAE, the number of subscribers grew 5.2% to 16.5 million, which etisalat put down to strong demand for advanced digital services and intelligent connectivity. Most of the group-wide increase came from consolidating Telenor Pakistan, the filing said, alongside growth in the UAE, Egypt, Moov Africa and Saudi Arabia.
The home market grew more slowly than the group. Revenue at etisalat UAE rose 1.9% to about $2.59 billion (AED 9.5 billion), and its quarterly EBITDA margin fell 2.3 percentage points to 47.3% on higher network costs, provisions and a one-off item. Revenue from information and communications technology services fell 8.0%, which the company linked to tight enterprise spending amid ongoing regional developments.
The quarter also closed the group's investment in Vodafone Group. etisalat sold all 3,944,743,685 of its Vodafone shares to Vega, a vehicle wholly owned by the Niel family group, for 112.5 pence per share including the final dividend, bringing the total consideration to $5.95 billion (AED 21.9 billion). The company said the deal gave it more financial flexibility.
That sale ended a holding that began in May 2022 with an initial 9.8% stake and had grown to about 16.21% of Vodafone's issued share capital by the time the $5.95 billion exit was agreed in July.
The group ended September with a consolidated cash balance of approximately $14.05 billion (AED 51.6 billion) and net debt of about $4.82 billion (AED 17.7 billion), equal to 0.50 times EBITDA. Operating free cash flow, excluding spectrum and license fees, rose 11.6% in the quarter to roughly $1.69 billion (AED 6.2 billion), and the group said its full-year guidance remains unchanged.
Other portfolio moves during the quarter included the sale of 12.5% of Careem Technologies to Uber for $100 million in cash, which cut etisalat's holding from 50.03%. The group's 2026 results, and the 2025 comparisons, now exclude Careem following its deconsolidation.
As it marks its 50th anniversary, the group is moving forward under the etisalat name with a vision to become a leading AI-powered telecoms company. Its strategy brings together its work in cloud computing, cybersecurity, AI, digital infrastructure and fintech, building on its core telecoms business.
That strategy rests on four business engines: telco, AI and business solutions, infrastructure, and fintech. Its first major commitment, launched on October 5 in the presence of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chairman of main shareholder the Emirates Investment Authority, is a plan to raise international connectivity capacity to more than 500 terabits per second (Tbps) by 2030.
That would be over 25 times today's capacity, which group chairman Jassem Mohamed Bu Ataba Alzaabi put at 20 Tbps. The project also adds diverse routes meant to improve efficiency and reliability and keep latency low. etisalat tied the plan to the UAE's goal of becoming a global hub for advanced technology and AI, and called digital infrastructure a fundamental pillar for emerging technologies and a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy.
Masood M. Sharif Mahmood, Group CEO of etisalat, said: "Our performance in Q3 2026 underscores the resilience of our business model and the discipline with which we are turning growth opportunities into tangible results. Consolidated revenue reached AED 19.5 billion, an increase of 6.9% YoY, while EBITDA reached AED 9.0 billion, up 5.1%, with an EBITDA margin of 46.1 per cent. These results reflect the strength of our core connectivity business and the discipline of our execution. Combined with our focus, these strengths underpin our confidence in our ability to excel and create long-term value to our stakeholders."
With the Vodafone gain set aside, quarterly profit growth of 7% and revenue growth of 1.9% in the UAE point to a business whose expansion may rely increasingly on newly consolidated operators abroad. The cash from the Vodafone exit and a net debt ratio of 0.50 times EBITDA could give the group room to fund the connectivity buildout without heavy new borrowing.
The group also gained longer visibility at home during the quarter. The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) renewed etisalat's public telecommunications license for 20 years, to August 8, 2046, and the Ministry of Finance notified the group that the Federal Royalty regime and Corporate Tax Law for the sector will be extended from January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2029.
