KUWAIT CITY: Kuwaiti telecom giant Zain said on Monday its net profit for the third quarter to September this year dropped 17.4 percent to $213.2 million, compared to $250.2 in the same period last year.
 
The company's net profit in the first nine months of 2012 also dropped 4.2 percent to $720 million from $750.7 million in the corresponding period last year, Zain said in a statement posted on the Kuwait Stock Exchange website.
 
Zain's assets stood at $10.7 billion on September 30, down 7.8 percent from $11.6 billion a year ago, while shareholders' equity dived 16.7 percent to $6 billion from $7.2 billion over the same period.
 
Besides Kuwait, Zain has operations in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Sudan with a customer base of around 40 million. It also manages a unit in Morocco.
 
Zain, in which the Kuwaiti government holds a stake of almost 25 percent, is one of three mobile operators in the Gulf state, along with the National Telecommunications Co. (Wataniya) and Kuwait Telecommunications Co. (VIVA). (AFP)