UAE Etisalat Q2 net falls 19 pct, beats forecasts

Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) made a second-quarter net profit of 2.41 billion dirhams ($656.1 million), down 19 percent from a year earlier but beating forecasts.

The company posted a first-half net profit of 4.59 billion dirhams, compared with 5 billion dirhams a year earlier, saying in a statement that last year's results included 892 million dirhams earned from an asset sale. Reuters calculated the quarterly profit based on previous financial statements.

Analysts had forecast on average that Etisalat, one of the largest Arab telecom companies, would post a second-quarter profit of about 2.22 billion dirhams, in a Reuters survey earlier this month.