Israel's Bezeq Telecom quarterly profit rises on fibre network gains
TEL AVIV, May 20 (Reuters) - Bezeq Israel Telecom (BEZQ.TA), opens new tab reported a 7% rise in first-quarter profit on Tuesday, as it continues to benefit from growth in its fibre optics network.
Bezeq, Israel's largest telecoms group, said it earned 319 million shekels ($91 million) excluding one-time items in the January to March period, up from 299 million a year earlier. Revenue dipped 0.9% to 2.2 billion shekels.
In its core fixed line business excluding home phone services, revenue grew 2.6% on a 36% gain in the number of more lucrative fibre subscribers to 885,000.
Similarly, its mobile unit Pelephone showed an 18% rise in 5G subscribers, with the firm posting its highest quarterly revenue in seven years that was also helped by higher income from roaming.
Bezeq last week raised its adjusted net profit expectation for 2025 to 1.32 billion shekels from 1.2 billion, while maintaining a forecast that deployment of its fibre-optics network would reach 2.9 million homes this year - up from 2.7 million currently.
Chairman Tomer Raved said Bezeq is near the end of a five-year investment cycle and will complete its nationwide fibre rollout in the coming months.
"These investments will enable Israel to implement a major national transformation as we enter the AI era across the private, business, and governmental sectors," he said.
In 2024, adjusted net profit fell 4.7% to 1.27 billion shekels.
($1 = 3.5176 shekels)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
9 hours ago
- Reuters
HSBC flags downside risks to Brent price outlook due to OPEC+ supply hikes
June 6 (Reuters) - HSBC expects OPEC+ to accelerate supply hikes in August and September, which is likely to raise downside risks to the bank's $65 per barrel Brent forecast from the fourth quarter of 2025, it said in a research note on Friday. The bank expects OPEC+ to implement two substantial production increases in August and September of 411,000 bpd and 274,000 bpd, respectively, compressing five increases into two months, it said. "Our new scenario assumes regular hikes from October to December and leaves the 2.2mbd of voluntary cuts fully unwound by the end of 2025," it added. The world's largest group of oil producers, OPEC+, stuck to its guns last week with another big increase of 411,000 barrels per day (bpd) for July, as it looks to wrestle back market share and punish over-producers. After years of curbing production by over 5 million barrels per day — about 5% of global demand — eight OPEC+ countries made a modest output increase in April before tripling it for May, June and now July. According to HSBC's latest supply and demand model, the oil market is expected to show surpluses of 0.3 million barrels per day (mbpd) and 0.9 mbpd for 2026, up from previous forecasts of 0.2 mbpd and 0.7 mbpd, driven by higher OPEC+ output. HSBC notes that the oil market appears balanced in the second and third quarters, as oil demand rises in summer and peaks in July and August, matching supply increases from OPEC+. However, the bank expects accelerated OPEC+ hikes would tip the market into a bigger surplus in the fourth quarter of 2025 than previously forecast. "Deteriorating fundamentals after summer raise downside risks to oil prices and our $65/b assumption from 4Q onwards," the bank said. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs said that it anticipates OPEC+ will implement a final 0.41 million barrels per day production increase in August. Brent crude futures were trading at $65.17 a barrel by 1006 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $63.15 barrel.
The Independent
10 hours ago
- The Independent
Australian engineer freed on bail after four years in Iraqi prison
An Australian engineer has been granted conditional release after spending more than four years in an Iraqi prison in what the UN has described as arbitrary detention. Robert Pether, 50, was arrested in Baghdad in April 2021 along with his colleague, Egyptian national Khalid Radwan, amid a contractual dispute between their employer CME Consulting and the Central Bank of Iraq. The two men had been overseeing the multi-million-dollar reconstruction of the bank's Baghdad headquarters, a project Pether had been involved with since 2015. Following their arrest, both men were held for nearly six months without charge, subjected to what the UN described as 'abusive and coercive' interrogations, and ultimately sentenced to five years in prison and a joint fine of $12m (£8.8m). Pether, who has consistently maintained his innocence, said he was forced to sign a pre-written confession in Arabic. In 2022, a UN working group concluded that the detention of the pair violated international law and due process. The following year, the International Chamber of Commerce's Court of Arbitration ruled that the Central Bank of Iraq, not CME Consulting, was at fault in the contractual disagreement and ordered it to pay $13m (£9.5m) in compensation to the firm. Although Pether has now been granted bail, he is still prohibited from leaving Iraq and will face ongoing legal proceedings. His family and supporters are urging the authorities to lift the travel ban so he can receive urgent medical treatment. His wife, Desree Pether, told the BBC that he is 'extremely sick' and has been unable to eat properly for months, raising fears of a possible recurrence of skin cancer. 'He's unrecognisable,' Ms Pether said. 'If he got on a plane now and they were checking his passport, they would not know it was the same person.' She added that the family had begun crowdfunding to afford private hospital care for him in Baghdad. 'Enough is enough. He needs to come home.' In a statement, Australia's foreign minister, Senator Penny Wong, welcomed the development, calling it 'a positive step' following years of 'persistent advocacy'. She noted the personal toll the detention has taken on Pether and his family, adding that she hoped 'this news brings a measure of relief after years of distress', reported 9 News. Senator Wong also thanked Australian officials, including the government's special envoy to Iraq, for their efforts, noting that Pether's case had been raised with Iraqi authorities more than 200 times. Ireland 's deputy prime minister, Tánaiste Simon Harris, also acknowledged the development, revealing that Iraq's foreign minister Fuad Hussein had called him directly to confirm Pether's release. The Pether family had been living in Roscommon, Ireland, before the arrest. 'I welcomed this as a first step to his being allowed to return to his family in Roscommon,' said Mr Harris. "I also spoke this evening with Robert's wife, Desree Pether, about this positive development." Speaking after a phone call with her husband on Thursday night, Ms Pether said he was briefly uplifted by the release but warned he was likely to crash emotionally soon after. 'There's a tiny glimmer of hope,' she said. 'But there's another mountain still to go over.' In a letter written from prison last year, Pether described the pain of missing milestones with his wife and five children during his detention. "I've missed so many milestones," he wrote. "Our oldest son's 30th, our other son's 18th and soon 21st and our youngest son's 16th and 18th. Our youngest two boys have finished school and are now young men. Our daughter was eight when I was arrested and is now 11. "I've missed three Christmases and four Easters, multiple birthdays, three wedding anniversaries, and so much more.' He wrote feeling 'abandoned' by the Anthony Albanese government. 'I have pleaded for three years for Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Wong to do everything they can to help me and get me home,' he said. 'So far, I just feel abandoned. I am sick, and worried I will not survive this ordeal much longer. 'I want to go home,' he wrote. 'I want to go back to Australia and hear the birds, swim at the beach, sit and watch the harbour while the ferries come and go and feel the sun on my skin.'
Reuters
10 hours ago
- Reuters
Musk's Starlink gets key India licence from telecoms ministry, sources say
NEW DELHI, June 6 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's Starlink has received a key licence from India's telecoms ministry, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday, clearing a major hurdle for the satellite provider and taking it closer to launching commercial operations in India. Starlink is the third company to get a licence from India's Department of Telecommunications, which has approved similar applications by Eutelsat's ( opens new tab OneWeb and Reliance Jio to provide services in the country.
