Ethiopia’s state-owned Ethio Telecom reported that its annual pretax profit shot up by more than 80% year-on-year to $550 million.
Frehiwot Tamiru, the mobile operator’s CEO, attributed the surge to an increase in customers: The total number of subscribers rose 6.3% to 83.2 million during the year, she told reporters.
Earlier this year, Ethio Telecom sold only 10.7% of shares in a lackluster initial public offering aimed at boosting investment in the country’s struggling economy. It raised $24.5 million, a small fraction of the $240 million it had hoped to drum up.
After months of delays, the firm also plans to list on the Ethiopian Securities Exchange that was launched in January, the country’s first securities exchange in five decades. The bourse launched a secondary market for trading treasury bills and equities earlier this month, Reuters reported.
