ABU DHABI — Global telecommunications and digital infrastructure group etisalat has announced its consolidated financial results for the third quarter and nine month period ended September 30, 2026, reporting third quarter consolidated revenue of AED 19.5 billion ($5.3 billion), representing a 6.9 percent year on year increase. Consolidated revenue for the first nine months of 2026 climbed 10.0 percent year on year to reach AED 57.6 billion, supported by sustained enterprise and consumer demand across sovereign digital infrastructure, intelligent connectivity, and artificial intelligence services.
Consolidated net profit for the third quarter surged 276.2 percent year on year to reach AED 11.2 billion ($3.05 billion), translating to quarterly earnings per share of AED 1.29 compared to AED 0.34 in the prior year period. For the first nine months of 2026, consolidated net profit rose 45.9 percent year on year to touch AED 17.2 billion, delivering nine month earnings per share of AED 1.98. Operational profitability remained robust across both reporting windows, with third quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) advancing 5.1 percent year on year to AED 9.0 billion at a 46.1 percent margin, while nine month EBITDA expanded 10.3 percent year on year to reach AED 26.7 billion, representing an EBITDA margin of 46.4 percent.
Financial performance during the third quarter was significantly bolstered by the completion of etisalat’s strategic divestment of its entire equity stake in Vodafone Group. The transaction generated total gross consideration of AED 21.9 billion, incorporating final dividend distributions and yielding a net capital gain of approximately AED 8.0 billion ($2.2 billion). Excluding the one time gain from the Vodafone disposal, underlying adjusted net profit stood at AED 3.2 billion for the third quarter and AED 9.2 billion for the nine month period, providing the group with substantial balance sheet liquidity and capital allocation flexibility.
Operational scale expanded rapidly across international and domestic footprints, with etisalat’s total group subscriber base reaching 254.8 million accounts in the third quarter of 2026, marking a 29.4 percent year on year increase from 197.0 million subscribers a year earlier. In its flagship United Arab Emirates domestic market, active subscribers grew 5.2 percent year on year to reach 16.5 million, up from 15.7 million in the comparative period.
Coinciding with its 50th anniversary, the group formally set out a renewed corporate vision to operate as a premier AI powered and enabling telecommunications powerhouse, moving forward under the unified etisalat brand name to reflect the foundational role of communications in the artificial intelligence era. To underpin the United Arab Emirates’ trajectory as a global center for artificial intelligence and digital trade, etisalat unveiled plans to expand its international network connectivity capacity to more than 500 terabits per second (Tbps) by 2030. This infrastructure roadmap represents a more than twenty five fold expansion over current capacity, reinforced by geographically diverse terrestrial and subsea transmission routes designed to guarantee ultra low latency performance.
Masood M. Sharif Mahmood, Group Chief Executive Officer of etisalat, stated that the third quarter results highlight the resilience of the company’s core connectivity foundation and the financial discipline applied to converting technological opportunities into tangible shareholder value. Mahmood emphasized that as artificial intelligence becomes deeply embedded across enterprise and sovereign government workflows, the underlying connectivity, high density compute, and cybersecurity layers built by etisalat over recent years have become indispensable, giving the etisalat name a deeper purpose in building and operating the intelligent platforms that anchor the global digital economy over the next fifty years.
