du announced its financial results for 2024 and they were the highest since its inception, both for revenue and profit. These results have been achieved through a three year long effort across revenue diversification, market segmentation, enhancing internal efficiencies, and restructuring of the organisation. Looking forward, du is leveraging its enterprise and governmental end customers to position itself as a preferred ICT services provider inside UAE.
2024 has been a historic year for du. Historic, because its financial performance has been the highest since its inception.
In February this year, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, du, announced its financial results for the full year of 2024. The 2024 performance exceeded the guidance for the year as revenues grew by 7.3% and EBITDA margin reached 44.2%, increasing by 11.6%. The net profit growth of 49.1%, reaching a record AED 2.5 billion, underscores the ability to drive both top-line expansion and bottom-line improvement.
du’s repositioning in the market and revenue diversification resulted in 7.3% revenue growth to reach a revenue of AED 14.6bn. du’s strategic partnerships with Orange and Telefónica are expected to further boost its innovation and growth in 2025 and ahead.
Explains Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO du, “This is a result of not just the work of one year. We started the transformation journey from 2021 right after the Covid year when the industry took a big hit. Just like any other industry, we started our transformation project internally and inside this transformation we did many things.”
While other companies were trying to cut cost, du decided with the support of its shareholders and the board, that it was the right thing to invest, especially in the rollout of 5G. To enhance its networks, du chose to invest almost three times more than what it was typically investing every year and continued this investment across three years from 2021 to 2023.
du also chose to reshuffle its operating model. Previously du looked at its potential market in UAE as two major segments, the consumer and the enterprise. du changed this approach to the market and created smaller segments within these two major segments.
It began to approach the UAE market as premium, SME, SOHO, governmental and large account segments. And this helped du to approach its markets in a more focussed and relevant manner.
Another important decision that du took was to simplify the organisation structure of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, EITC.
“We removed layers from the organisation; we increased the span of control; we rotated people around; so we came out of this as a much lighter, agile organisation than what we used to be before,” explains Al Hassawi.
Having implemented these changes du also focussed on product innovation, customer experience, and the shift from physical to digital. These efforts over the last three years, have resulted in du’s historic financial performance in 2024.
“These numbers are the highest since the inception of du,” says Al Hassawi. “What we see today is the result of this journey, which has been extremely comprehensive.”
Core business and ICT business
Today, global and regional telecom players do not want to depend only on their traditional business which is the network connectivity business. They also want to move to other sources of revenue and growth. Telecom players have been trying to diversify their revenue and du has also adopted the same approach of diversification. “We are not too different from what many other telcos are trying to do,” says Al Hassawi.
In most developed markets, the core business is declining. However for du, which has been a challenger in the UAE telecom market, the situation is different.
“Fortunately in this market it is not the case,” says Al Hassawi. “There is growth in this market and in the core business, because the population is increasing, the number of tourist visitors is increasing, and government spending is increasing. All of this makes the UAE market still a good market for the telecom core business.”
Targeting the core telecom business in UAE, du is a challenger player and not the incumbent, which offers room for du to gain market share of the core telecom business.
“Our strategy has been to continue growing in the core business, to take our fair share and this is what we have been doing successfully in the last three years,” indicates Al Hassawi. “And the core business usually is a business that comes with healthy margins,”
Other than the traditional core business, du has decided to diversify and expand into the ICT business. “We decided we want to invest in an ICT business unit that will get us ICT revenue. From that point of view we are diversifying and we are starting to open new streams of revenue.”
du is therefore leveraging and focussing on both streams of revenue and growth – the core, traditional, telecom business and its new ICT business. “So between the two we are having a very good balance. Do not forget about core business also get into the non-core business,” explains Al Hassawi.
While 2024 was a historic year for du with its top line revenue of AED 14.6bn and 7% growth, its bottom line performance with net profit of AED 2.5 billion and growth of 49.1% was equally exceptional.
To achieve this, du has not only focussed on revenue growth but has also focussed on improvement of efficiency that is visible in its bottom line margins and bottom line growth.
“We did not say this is only a growth market, and we will not focus on efficiency. We focused on efficiency and this is why you see today our bottom line growth is far, far bigger than our top line growth,” says Al Hassawi.
“Everyone is appreciating how our focus on efficiency did not come from the expense of growth of revenue. Revenue is still growing but we are still able to extract efficiencies,” he adds.
Driving its ICT business
For du, its entry into the ICT services business is an extension of its existing relationships with many UAE end user enterprises for whom it is providing connectivity services, either 5G connectivity or fibre network connectivity.
As a telecom player, du is also a technology company and understands technology better than other enterprises. And because of the nature of its business, du also has relationships with most if not all large technology vendors. du also has a wide experience base of implementing complex technology solutions for its own consumption.
“I already have an existing business with them for my own consumption within du and I am already a consumer of their services,” indicates Al Hassawi. “When you put all of this together, we end up becoming the preferred trusted partner for any large enterprise and government establishment in UAE.”
Since the ICT business is different from du’s traditional telecom business, another recent initiative has been to recruit people with the right background and the right experience. du is also building on its existing relationships with large enterprises and governmental organisations to support them with its ICT services.
As a local ICT services company based in UAE, du follows the court of law of UAE for its obligations with its customers. This is especially beneficial for governmental and large enterprise customers. “For them we are the right partner and we have the ability to invest,” points out Al Hassawi.
As du expands its relationships with its existing customers, playing the role of a trusted technology partner, it is witnessing a growth of its business. “Business brings more business, because you get into a better understanding of what they are doing and you become embedded into their network,” says Al Hassawi.
“All in all we are extremely well positioned to become one of the biggest players in ICT.”
Transformation of du
Looking ahead, Al Hassawi wants the company’s people to be hands-on. Removing the layers and simplification of the organisation has been part of du’s transformation initiative over the last three years. “I am very hands-on and this is something that I personally enjoy. I think my team now enjoys as well and understands this is the way we operate.”
One of the things that du wants to change is to have people skilled in its day-to-day operation. If you have a feel of the pulse of the business, then all discussions are around what is really required to improve things. “This is very healthy because then we all talk business.”
“We want to keep the organisation very simple. We want to keep the number of layers limited. We want our people to be always hands-on. We want the right level of details and discussion to happen at the highest level. And this drives the right momentum, the right accountability, the right focus.” This is how Al Hassawi would like to take du forward through its transformation.
Snapshot
In 2024, du made significant progress in its transformation journey from a traditional telecom operator to a comprehensive digital services provider, supported by UAE’s resilient economy and ambitious digital agenda. The introduction of du Tech and du Infra sub-brands enhances its B2B service offerings and caters to specific market segments.
Today, du’s mobile and fixed network is supporting close to 10 million subscribers, and is part of the backbone of UAE’s digital economy. du has added additional revenue streams and enhanced networks and focussed on its digital-first strategy. Key milestones included the launch of the du Tech and du Infra sub-brands, the roll-out of the du Pay fintech solutions, and the deployment of the Middle East’s first indoor 5G-Advanced Network. In the data centre business, du entered strategic partnerships with Oracle Alloy and AI Hosting Hub.
In February, du announced another achievement in telecommunications with the successful deployment in its 5G-Advanced network, marking a key step in the evolution of next-generation connectivity. This milestone solidifies du’s position as an industry innovator and marks UAE as the first country in the region to harness the transformative power of 5G-Advance Network under the leadership of TDRA.
du has successfully demonstrated state-of-the-art 5G Advanced technology by leveraging the combination of 5G Sub-3GHz and 5G U6GHz spectrum. The 5G Advanced solution marks a significant milestone in the evolution of mobile connectivity, providing enhanced throughput speed, lower latency and improved coverage in high-density environments. This achievement further strengthens du’s leadership in the 5G users especially delivering a peak data rate of 10.56 Gbps.
du is the first telecom operator in the UAE to commercially launch the revolutionary 5G Voice over New Radio service and to receive full certification from leading handset manufacturers for compatibility with its 5G Standalone Access network. du’s 5G SA service is designed to meet the modern demands of both individual consumers and businesses by empowering a new wave of digital transformation and innovation across the UAE.
This cutting-edge phase in the evolution of 5G technology, will offer a wide range of features for both Consumer and Enterprise sectors. They can now benefit from 5G SA in different aspects by experiencing higher download and upload speed, near-real time latency and enhanced call quality using the VoNR, marking a milestone for the full implementation of 5G’s capabilities across various sectors including smart cities, healthcare, education, and entertainment.
du announced a partnership with PEACE Cable International Network to extend the PEACE Cable System into the UAE and Gulf region. The agreement outlines the landing of the PEACE Cable in UAE – an open-access submarine cable system that promises to deliver ultra-high-speed, secure, and resilient connections. This development will significantly boost du’s capabilities to provide enhanced network performance and managed services across the region.
Furthermore, the construction of a new branch, the PEACE Gulf Extension, from the PEACE Cable’s in-service trunk segment, will extend its reach to the UAE, integrating it into a broader network that spans over 22,000 km across three continents.
Projected to be Ready For Service by the second half of 2026, this partnership not only signifies a major leap in regional digital infrastructure development but also highlights du’s commitment to position the UAE as a pivotal gateway for global connectivity.
du embraces advanced ICT solutions to refine its internal operations and strengthen cybersecurity measures for its business clients across the UAE. Internally, du has implemented AI-driven solutions, including an AI-based chatbot Ask Dana managed by human resources. This intelligent chatbot delivers support to employees, handling routine inquiries and tasks, enhancing productivity and streamlining resources within the department.
du has entered a strategic partnership with Microsoft leveraging Microsoft Azure. At the core of this joint effort is the integration of Large Language Model capabilities into du Tech’s cybersecurity services. This enables du’s customers to benefit from AI-fuelled use cases for enhanced insights, improved early detection of issues, and an advanced response system.
du has also launched Microsoft 365 Copilot to enhance workplace productivity and align with the national AI adoption goals. This strategic initiative will equip du employees with advanced AI tools for improved collaboration, streamlined processes, and increased efficiency.
The initial phase involves testing the AI system with a group of employees to integrate deeply into daily operations. du also entered into strategic partnerships with Oracle for Oracle Alloy and AI Hosting Hub.
