Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Ooredoo Group's half-year 2025 results call, covering the six-month period ending 30 June. I'm Luelle Pillay, Head of Investor Relations for the Group. Joining me today is our Group CEO, Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, who will begin with a summary of the key highlights from the first half of the year. He will then provide a detailed look at the performance of our data center and verticals, followed by an overview of our consolidated results. After Aziz, our Group CFO, Abdulla Al Zaman, will take you through a deeper review of the operational performance across the nine markets. As always, we'll keep the presentation concise to ensure there's plenty of time to address your questions at the end. Please feel free to submit your questions at any time using the Q&A function here in Zoom.
The presentation slides are available on our website at ooredoo.com, as well as on this webcast platform. Please note that the session is being recorded and transcribed. By joining, you consent to being included. Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on slide two, and with that, I'll hand over to Aziz to begin the presentation.
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our H1 2025 investor call. For the first half of the year, we delivered strong financial results, made steady progress in executing our strategy, and continue to drive sustainable profitability. To start, here's a brief look at H1 2025. Our core remains strong, with resilient results from our GCC market and strong performance in our high-growth markets. We delivered double-digit growth in Algeria, with high single-digit gains in Iraq and Tunisia. This demonstrates the benefit of a balanced portfolio combined with our strategic investments. This operational strength is driving sustainable profitability. Net profit grew by 4% year-on-year, and our EBITDA margin remains at a solid 43%. We have a clear strategy that is focused on delivering long-term growth and value as we move towards becoming a leading digital infrastructure provider in the MEDA region. We have made steady progress.
On towers, closing in Qatar is progressing well. We strategically spun off our data centers into Syntys and partnered with Iron Mountain to enhance and expand our data center capabilities. Since becoming an NVIDIA Cloud partner a year ago, we have successfully launched Qatar's sovereign AI cloud services, built on the latest NVIDIA GPU, hosted in Ooredoo data centers, and operated by Syntys, positioning Ooredoo at the forefront of AI innovation. We are building the largest subsea cable in the GCC to expand infrastructure and connectivity. This cable will link all GCC countries and beyond, serving as a critical enabler of high-capacity, low-latency connectivity between Asia and Europe. We have already concluded landing agreements in Kuwait and Iraq. We are also scaling our offering, unlocking new value in this growing sector. We have a healthy financial position. Our balance sheet is strong, giving us flexibility to invest for growth.
We have QAR 14.8 billion in cash reserves and QAR 5.5 billion available in on-drawn facilities. We have clear capital allocation priorities and maintain disciplined decision-making to maximize value creation. Now, we will move on to take a more detailed look at our data center and verticals. Data center remains a dynamic high-growth area of our business in H1. Syntys delivered around QAR 74 million of revenue, with a majority of the revenue coming from hyperscalers. EBITDA totaled about QAR 25 million. Strategic partnerships remain central to our growth, as mentioned already, Iron Mountain acquired a minority stake in Syntys, supporting its expansion. Syntys was key to launching Ooredoo's sovereign AI cloud services and helped advance our partnership with NVIDIA by bringing their latest GPUs to our Qatar facilities.
With a committed investment of $1 billion and an initial funding of $500 million, we are focused on scaling data center capacity beyond 120 MW over the medium term. We continue to advance financial inclusion through mobile-led solutions and have a growing market share in international remittances markets. We already have offerings in Qatar, Oman, and Maldives. Looking at a snapshot of H1 numbers for this vertical, revenue was around QAR 44 million, with more than three-quarters of this coming from international remittances. We've invested just under QAR 18 million of CapEx to enter new markets. We currently have around 330,000 active users each month. In Qatar, EBITDA reached QAR 17 million, and we've processed over $6 billion in transactions. We're seeing good traction in Oman, where we have around 51,000 registered users and 15,000 30-day active users. We're progressing well with the expansion of the vertical.
We received approval in principle for a license in Tunisia. Implementation is going smoothly, with strong traction on the ground. In Iraq, our regulatory engagement is going well. We are making steady progress on incorporation, and our local partnerships are strong. Overall, we're laying the groundwork for a scalable, structured rollout. In Kuwait, we are currently exploring the best way to enter the market, keeping an eye on strategic fit and long-term value. s remain a significant untapped opportunity in Ooredoo's market, with access to over 50 million customers on the network. We continue to drive our effort to capture this market. Turning to our performance for the first half, the Group achieved sustainable, strong growth, reflecting operational strength and strategic investments. The financial highlights for the first half reflect growth across most of the key metrics.
Excluding the impact of our exit from the Myanmar operation, revenue increased by 4% and EBITDA grew by 3%. We maintain a consistent EBITDA margin at 43%. Net profit increased by 4%. As you can see from the slide, the solid momentum seen in the first quarter continued into Q2, with growth across a majority of our key metrics. Turning to our top-line performance, Group revenues reached QAR 11.9 billion for the first half, excluding the impact of the Myanmar exit. H1 revenue increased by 4% year-on-year, and Q2 revenues increased by 5% year-on-year. H1 strong results in Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Qatar, and Kuwait underpinned this growth. Revenue in Oman and Palestine was impacted by its highly competitive market and macroeconomic pressures, respectively. Looking at EBITDA, top-line growth, with our focus on operational efficiency and profitability, contributed to strong EBITDA performance. EBITDA reached QAR 5.1 billion for the first half.
Excluding the impact of the Myanmar exit, EBITDA increased by a healthy 3% year-on-year in both H1 and Q2. EBITDA margin remained solid at 43%. Kuwait, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, and Maldives enhanced their contribution to the Group overall profitability in the first half. Turning to net profit for the first half, we are achieving consistent and sustainable profitability. On a reported basis, net profit increased by 4% to just shy of QAR 2 billion. Net profit incorporates a Pillar 2 impact of QAR 112 million, aligned with new global minimum tax regulation. For Q2, we delivered net profit growth on a reported basis of 3%. By an impressive 12% on a normalized basis, since the previous year. Included a gain from the disposal of Myanmar. We continue to invest strategically to expand and future-proof our networks, positioning us for sustainable growth and market leadership.
In the first half, we've invested QAR 1.5 billion, representing a 49% increase year-on-year. We ramped up spend mainly in Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, Kuwait, and Oman, along with data center expansions. Group free cash flows decreased by 11% year-on-year to QAR 3.6 billion in H1, due to accelerated spending on CapEx projects driven by strong market demand and growth in Iraq, Algeria, and Tunisia. We are already seeing measurable results from these projects, as reflected by the strong performance from these operations. Free cash flow in Q2 also reflects data center expansion and lower contribution from IOH Indonesia. We continue to add more customers and now have about 52 million customers across our network, an increase of 4% year-on-year. Including IOH Indonesia customers, the customer base stood at just over 147 million customers. Looking at our balance sheet, our strong investment-grade financial standing is evident in these charts.
Our leverage remains conservative at 0.7 times, comfortably below board guidance. We have strong cash and liquidity reserves in place to comfortably meet our upcoming debt maturities. With 91% of our debt fixed, we have stability in our cost of capital. Looking at how we are tracking against our full year 2025 guidelines, we expect revenue to continue the current trajectory. We delivered a 4% uplift, excluding the Myanmar exit in H1, and expect to meet our 2% to 3% growth target. Our EBITDA margin of 43% for the first half aligns closely with our 2025 guidance of low 40s. We have invested QAR 1.5 billion in CapEx during the first half and will continue to invest strategically in our core businesses, as well as in data center and subsea cable projects, keeping us on course to meet our guidance range of QAR 4.5 to 5 billion.
To conclude, Ooredoo Group delivered strong results in the first half of the year, positioning us well for continued growth in the second half. We remain committed to driving robust and sustained profitability while achieving our strategic priorities. On this note, I leave it to Abdulla to take you through the operational review. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Aziz. Good afternoon, everyone. I will take you through the Group year-on-year operational performance for the first half of 2025. Beginning with our home market, Ooredoo Qatar maintains its leading premium positions and a strong output despite a flat overall market. The financial performance for the first half showed positive momentum. On a normalized basis, revenue increased by 2%, with EBITDA remaining flat. The operation continues to show strong financial discipline by improving efficiency to deliver a solid EBITDA margin of 52%.
Total customers stood at 2.9 million, while the mobile postpaid customer base grew by 2%. Moving to Kuwait, the operation maintained healthy growth in mature and highly saturated markets. Service revenue grew by a strong 6%, driven by higher voice, data, and digital revenue, while the total revenue increased by 1% due to lower device sales. Normalizing for the one-off bad debt provision raised in H1 2024, EBITDA grew by 14%. Supported by higher service revenue combined with disciplined cost control, EBITDA margin expanded to 34%, up by 8 percentage points. The customer base increased by 1% to 2.9 million. On to Oman. Ooredoo Oman maintained strong cost discipline despite the market headwinds while advancing its 5G initiatives. To deliver a high-quality network and leading customer experience, revenue and EBITDA decreased by 2% and 6%, respectively. EBITDA margin remained strong at 45%.
The customer base grew by 6% to 3.1 million, driven by focus on customer value moving to Iraq. In Iraq, HSL delivered another period of good growth, driven by customer acquisition and healthy performance on the data segment. Revenue increased by a strong 8%, driven by growing customer base and higher adoption of data services. EBITDA increased by 3%, driven by top-line growth and partially offset by increased operational expenses. HSL delivered a strong EBITDA margin of 45%. The customer base grew by 6% to 19.4 million, reflecting successful marketing execution and growing consumer engagement. Now looking at Algeria. A standout performance within the Group, we saw impressive double-digit growth. Revenue increased by 13% in the local currency, driven by continued growth across voice, data, digital services.
Top-line growth led to a strong EBITDA increase of 20% in the local currency, with an EBITDA margin of 45%, up by 3 percentage points. The customer base grew by 6% to 14.5 million. The strong growth across the key metrics confirms that our strategic investment in expanding and improving their network is delivering measurable results. Additionally, in July, Ooredoo Algeria secured a 5G license. This is a key strategic milestone that supports long-term growth and engagement. On Tunisia. A strong performance on both the mobile and fixed segment contributed to Ooredoo Tunisia's growth. Revenue increased by 7% in the local currency, driven mainly by mobile service, supported by high-quality acquisition and CVM initiative. Top lines also reflect the increased demand for high-speed internet in fiber and fixed wireless access. Revenue uplift supported a healthy EBITDA increase of 9% in local currency.
EBITDA margin was up by 1 percentage point to 42%. The customer base grew by 2% to 7 million. Going to Maldives. In Maldives, despite the elevated competition on the mobile market, the operation clearly focused on cost control, led to a healthy performance. Revenue decreased slightly by 1%, mainly due to lower revenue from the mobile segment. EBITDA increased by 3%, while EBITDA margin improved by 2 percentage points to a strong 55%. Ooredoo Maldives remained the leader in customer experience and network quality. Moving to Palestine, in the challenging conditions, our team. Performance is truly admirable. Ooredoo Palestine continues to support customers, delivering a leading customer experience to 1.5 million customers on the network. Revenue decreased by 7%, and EBITDA was down by 6% on the reported basis. EBITDA margin stood at 40%, reflecting disciplined cost control and operation performance.
Finally, our joint venture, IOH Indonesia, published respectable results for the first half of the year, while revenue and EBITDA decreased by 3% and 4%, respectively. EBITDA margin was maintained at a solid 47%. The performance was impacted by intense competition on the market. However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, EBITDA performance has trended positively. This concludes the operational review. Back to Luelle. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Aziz and Abdulla. We have now reached the Q&A segment of today's call. Here's how you can participate. You can raise your virtual hand, and I'll unmute your line when it comes to you as well. Alternatively, you can type your questions into the Q&A box. If you're dialing in via phone line, please press star nine to ask a question. For Q&A, I'm joined by senior leadership.
Together with Aziz and Abdulla, we have our Deputy CFO, Eyas Naif Assaf. Let's open up the floor to questions. Don't see any questions. Oh, I see one. Our first question comes from Maddy Singh from HSBC. Please go ahead, Maddy.
Yes. Hi. Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Great. Thanks a lot for taking my question. My first question is, just wanted to be reminded about the dividend calculation methodology. When you give your guidance, what is the net income base you're using for dividend calculation? Is it still the normalized net income but with the FX included there? If you could confirm that, that would be great. The reason I'm asking is because I think that net income line is growing very strongly. I'm just trying to understand what happens to dividend in that regard.
The second question is, if you could update on the performance in Iraq. Has there been any change in the market structure or, let's say, how Korec has been behaving? Any update on the 5G launch and so on? If you could just talk about the Iraqi market. Finally, your CapEx run rate looks a bit lower compared to the full year guidance. Should we expect a catch-up in the second half? Is the lower run rate because of any bulky CapEx which is to be done, or is it just regular. CapEx but running at a slower run rate? Thank you.
Thank you for this question. I think you're always one of the first to ask the questions. It's usually you or Arqaam Capital, I think. Nishit. Nishit, exactly. Which is there also. Congratulations to both of you. Look, there's a lot of questions here.
One, regarding the dividend policy, it's based on normalized net income. Normalized net income, the normalization is as according to the chart we produce during the sections, which was before, where we showed the different normalization. I'll let Eyas, if he wants to go.
Actually, his calculation is correct. We exclude the one-time adjustment, but FX is included.
We've been on a very strong net income growth for the last four years. I hope you don't only attribute that to FX and give a bit of credit to the management of the company and all its employees.
Not at all, not at all. I was just looking at the dividend group. That's it.
When it comes to Iraq, currently, there's no change in the landscape in terms of Korec for the time being. The direction from the regulator, which has suspended interconnect, etc., is still in place.
5G, fourth operator launch to what we know, and we're planning and structuring ahead. This will link to your CapEx question. As stated by the regulator, it's normally a launch of operation towards the very end of this year. I think Iraq's operation, when you look at the total market growth of roughly 4.5%, we're growing at around 9% plus, if I'm not mistaken, Eyas. I think it's really a testament to the strength of the team in Iraq. To your last points in terms of CapEx, there's a lot of cyclicality into CapEx because there are long lead times to procurement, import duties, etc.
What you do see year on year is a huge CapEx ramp-up towards the last quarter of the year because we're preponing basically a lot of orders for the year to come so that we can start the year directly installing and building up our investment, whether it's network, RAN, core, etc. There is a build-up in the CapEx and cyclicality. As mentioned, our CapEx envelope this year is slightly higher than the previous year. If you look at it from a telecom perspective, it's relatively in line. We do have the Fig and Sonic cables in place, plus the data center expansion, which are going through. This will pull some CapEx towards the end of the year. We also, to note. There's a bit of luck because it depends on regulators, but also quite a bit of good planning.
We have three markets which have launched or will be launching in a horizon 5G, which is Tunisia, which is live 5G, Algeria, where we won the auction, one of the auctions for 5G, and we're looking to launch, I think, towards the end of this year, and Iraq, as you mentioned, there's still a bit of confusion around the regulation. All the CapEx we've been doing in the past years has always been 5G ready, so we're not seeing a surge, a massive surge, because of these new licenses.
Thank you, Aziz. Our next question comes from Nishit Lakhotia from SICO Bank . Please go ahead, Nishat.
Yes, thank you for the call and congrats on a good quarter. I have a couple of questions. First, at your home market, Qatar, has been broadly stable to a bit declining.
I know you've talked about a certain event last year, but when we look at your competitor and the performance of your competitor, I mean, the same factors will apply to your competitor as well, and they've been doing much better. How do you look at this in terms of how you're losing market share? Is your competitor gaining market share across segments? What's your strategy for Qatar market? That's on the first question. Second, coming back on the Iraq operations itself, it's been doing very well. You've been growing faster than the market, but are you concerned that this growth may not be sustainable once this new operator is launched because of the competitive dynamics that could come in the 5G? At the same time, the other markets that are growing for the group, which is Tunisia and Algeria, how do you see the growth in the coming quarters?
Is this rate sustainable? How do you see the 5G launch affecting the growth in Algeria and Tunisia? Do you think the same rate, or it could be better, post-launch of 5G in these two markets? That's it from me. Thank you.
Again, three questions in one. I'll try to address all of them. When it comes to Qatar, I think the right statement is not the growing is stable, and this is the goal we have in Qatar, is to maintain a stable position. I think Qatar's management is doing a good job at that. There's a very rough number. When you look at the overall RMS or service market share, we're roughly at a split of 70-30, and we try to hover around these areas. One quarter, it drops slightly. The next quarter, there's a slight catch-up. I think it's a healthy way.
We don't want to push too hard because suddenly, and we've witnessed this in other markets, we've also learned that in the past. When you're the leading player and you become a bit too dominant, then it triggers usually a price war, which would completely destroy the market. Also, yes, there are areas within our portfolio where our market position is untenable in the long term. One area where our competitor is doing a great job is on the fixed market, for instance, fixed broadband. We were at 90% market share maybe a couple of years ago. As you can imagine, sustaining and maintaining a 90% market share is impossible and is not healthy for the market. There are some small pockets in the segmentation where we will lose naturally, organically, some market share. That being said, we're still extremely focused on the premium segment of the market.
This translates also, we might have a slightly slower customer acquisition in the market, but we also benefit from a significant ARPU premium. I think this is what we're trying to protect. You've heard this management say it over and over and over again. We're slightly less focused on pure revenue market share. We're very focused on profitable market share and EBITDA market share. When you look at these parameters, we're actually very happy with the performance in Qatar. Iraq. What was the question on Iraq? Iraq. 5G. No, there was the growth in Iraq and 5G. How do we see the growth going, and especially Tunisia and Algeria? Slightly linked question. Look, Iraq, we still believe we can continue to grow with a new entrant coming in. We're fine-tuning our model.
You will appreciate that we'll be quite cryptic on these questions because we're preparing our commercial strategies to prepare ourselves for a new entrant. A new entrant will, of course, have a dilutive effect on the market. It's a simple law of math. The new entrant will acquire market share. A new entrant usually dilutes ARPU. Our main job is to ensure that we sustain a very healthy level of growth and that the acquisition of new market share comes out of other people's pockets and as little as possible from our pocket. We're preparing a strategy. As I said, we have a very, very strong team in Iraq, and I'm very confident that we'll be very well prepared for that. Going to Algeria and Tunisia, we're seeing very strong growth in both of these markets. We don't see. That growth significantly eroding. Of course, market matures.
That's a normal factor. We have 5G coming in. There's usually a dual effect when you look at 5G entering. You have, on one side, a slight compression of the total yield you get for data, but on the other side, a significant increase in consumption of data. We see it as a net-net positive.
Thank you. Okay, we have typed questions from Raghad Al Tamimi. How has Ooredoo's digital transformation contributed to improving its EBITDA margin of Ooredoo Kuwait? I'll ask them one by one.
All right. Look, we're in a constant digital migration, adoption of new technologies from digital distribution to AI to machine learning. We, as a group, and not just in Kuwait, we need to constantly adopt these new technologies and reinvent ourselves for many reasons. One is consumer centricity.
More and more, you're seeing behaviors where customers can interact as little as possible with human beings, whether it's queuing in a shop or being on the call center queue, the happier they are. Some of these digital transformations have customer benefits and not dollar benefits, but this, at the end, translates in lower churn and brand loyalty. Other transformations, of course, if you take digital distribution, when you can sell your recharges through your digital app, you reduce the commission you're paying to third-party distribution channels. This has an immediate cost of sales reduction and translates in higher EBITDA margin. I think we've been constantly growing our EBITDA margin as a group and operation by operation. If I'm not mistaken, I think three, four years ago, Kuwait's EBITDA margin was in the low 30s. Now we're hovering close to the 40s.
I think that shows the level of efficiencies we've been driving in Kuwait. My current statement, if you take every single one of our operations, is true. As a group, we were in the mid to high 30s as EBITDA margin. Today, we're in the mid 40s, and we're still pushing to increase that profitability.
If you unwrap it, the growth in revenue in Kuwait is coming from voice data and digital services, not just coming from one source of revenue. Therefore, we see that the quality of revenue has increased. Today, the EBITDA is 34%, but if you normalize it for the handset, it's almost 40, 41% for Kuwait.
I think the question two was covered on specific cost areas. Question three, how much did the 15% minimum under DMTT PillarII impact Ooredoo Kuwait's net income in H1 2025?
On this as well, he would like to add how. What would be the impact at year-end of 2025 going forward?
Relatively material. This is, I can think. Questions. I don't see, or it is not a material impact for Ooredoo Kuwait, actually, that this is what we have booked. If I'm not mistaken, the first half, about QR 15 million.
Exactly, yeah.
Yeah, QR 15 million. If we talk about the second half, it would be another QR 15 million. Approximately, there's a QR 30 million. I don't see this as a material impact on Kuwait.
The main reason that is not impacted is because by implementing the Pillar II, they removed the Zakat and the Social Security, which was almost 3.5% from the total net profit. Therefore, the impact on Kuwait is very minor.
Next question, also staying on Kuwait.
Kuwait is the fourth country contributor in terms of total revenue, with only 6% customer base. Provide more insights on this.
Kuwait is the fourth country in returning total. It's mainly the ARPU. Yeah. It's the same like Qatar. No, no, it's a sixth customer for the whole group. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's just a pure ARPU. If you look at certain markets, we have ARPUs which are closer to $80. On a blended total customer base across the group, our ARPU is an average of $8 or $9. That gives the discrepancy of ARPU between countries, geographies.
Kuwait is the second highest after Qatar.
I don't see any more questions. I'm just going to give it 10 seconds. No more questions. Is the results clear? Okay. Since there are no more questions.
Ziad.
Ziad Itani . Thank you, Ziad. Please go ahead, Ziad, from our side.
Yes. Thank you.
Congratulations on the strong results. Just one small question from our end, specifically on the associate/JV income. It seems there's a sharp drop in the second quarter, down 95% or so year on year and even sequentially. I understand you have a lot of associates. JV, probably the biggest is the one you have with Hutchison, Indonesia, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison. Also you have NavLink, Asia Mobile, Phonetics, and so many other intellect. What's the reason behind this drop? How should we think about it going forward? Do you expect this to recover? The impact on EBITDA is close to 3% this quarter since you account for it within this line item. Thank you.
The main contributor to our associate is IOH. The drop is mainly linked to IOH. Indonesia.
Around end of Q3 of last year, a price war was triggered by one of our competitors, which has significantly negatively affected all operators because you can't stay idle. We actually took a position to lose market share but try to maintain price discipline in the market. It took around three quarters of significant deterioration. By the way, IOH, first of all, has their own disclosures because they're listed. I'd suggest to go through there. IOH was probably one of the least impacted in terms of value out of the different operators in Indonesia, the offset of this price war. What we're starting to see is people have taken the painful lessons, and we're slowly entering a track of recovery in terms of market repair and discipline. We think the market is stabilizing now.
If you allow me just to elaborate, actually, the drop shows a QAR 90 million .
One of the main reasons, in addition to the reason mentioned by Aziz, there was one accounting adjustment related to the booking of lease asset and lease liability there. As you know, in IOH, the booking using the local standard, we are using the IFRS. It's only an accounting adjustment entry. It can contribute 50% for this difference.
Okay, I see. That's very clear. Thank you. If I may add just one more question on the Oman market, it seems competition is very tough, and it might even intensify more with Awasr getting a mobile license before the end of the year. What's your plan for that? What's the turnaround strategy for this market specifically?
There's no way to sugarcoat it. Oman is a very tough market.
It is, at least in my opinion, that a market of the size of Oman, with the growth of Oman, which has now three real operators and at least four or five MVNOs operating, is unsustainable in the long run. That being said, Oman is still one of our core markets. We're very committed. Despite this, yes, there's a significant erosion in performance versus where it was three years ago before the third entrant. It is still a market which has a 40+% EBITDA margin, so it's still a healthy market. Also, Oman is very core to us for a stealth cooperation, but it's also the first market outside of Qatar where we launched our mobile financial services. It's key when we look at two of our major infrastructure projects, whether it's FIG or Sonic, both start landing the first connectivity to the Asia route is in Oman.
It's also core to our data center operation. We're still very committed to Almami. It is an extremely challenging market, and we hope that over time, it rationalizes. We've seen this in many markets. I think the telecom industry is not new to these kinds of situations. It usually takes slightly longer than reasonable for these markets to rationalize. Over time, there will be inevitable rationalization. All these players can't sustain a market that aggressive. We're lucky to be in a position where we're strong enough as a market position to sustain it.
Makes sense. Finally, on the same topic, any updates on the separate tower sales initiative in this market?
We're still working with them there. To be very, very candid, it hasn't been our number one priority in Oman, and it hasn't been our number one priority on the tower sales.
We're really focused on closing our main transaction in Qatar first so that we can start closing the rest of the markets. I think once that hurdle is passed, and hopefully this year and soon, we can then start focusing on Oman.
That's very clear. Thank you.
Thanks, Ziad. We have another question from Nishit. Please go ahead, Nishit.
Yeah, am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Yeah. Thank you again for the opportunity. I have two questions. First, on the Ooredoo Kuwait group. Would this current strategy of upstreaming 90 to 100% of the payout from Ooredoo Kuwait continue? Given that the operation is generating a lot of cash, which is needed for, I mean, what can be, and you are the major shareholder with more than 90% of the group. That's the first question.
Second, on Maldives, how much percentage of your cash is stuck in Maldives, given that there is a big haircut or very difficult to upstream cash from Maldives currently.
Coming to Kuwait, yes, the dividend policy, I don't think we're going to change it. We own 90+% of Ooredoo Kuwait. If we were able to do a squeeze-out and a delisting, we would. It only makes sense for us to upstream the profitability back to the group shareholders because ultimately, the group shareholders represent more than 90% of Ooredoo Kuwait. Regarding Maldives, yes, it's no secret that there are currency exchange liquidity issues. We're working very closely with the government to find solutions. We're able to upstream partially some of our cash, not fully. We've been, again, in these situations in the past in other operations, namely Iraq. We've always found solutions. It's not as fast as everyone would like.
We don't want to be in this position, but it's part of the geographies we've decided to operate in. For us, it's business as usual. We're confident that we'll find a solution, and we're working on that.
Okay, thank you.
Thanks, Nishit. Another question, another one from Raghad Al Tamimi. What will be the impact of honorary revenues after the launch of Starlink, which has been recently announced in Qatar?
Starlink is an amazing technology. What they're able to do is really fascinating. For dense urban areas, their technology cannot come close in terms of fixed fiber or even mobile networks. Also, in a country like Qatar, we have 99% coverage in 5G, where you can have speeds of north of 100 plus MB. We have the second, depending on the ranking, between first and third fastest network in the world.
We're very confident that Starlink, apart from some remote cases, people camping in very remote areas, some yachts using it, etc., there is limited impact to us. Actually, there's a positive: people tend to forget that technologies like Starlink need ground relays. We actually provide the connectivity to one of these ground relays in the region, as Qatar. That's actually a revenue stream for us. I think it's a net positive for the timing.
Thank you, Aziz. There are no further questions. Since there are no more questions, thank you for joining today's call. We do hope to see results expected to be released in October with a capital markets data for Q4 of this year. If you have any further questions or any follow-ups, please feel free to reach out to the investor relation team. Thank you once again for joining. We look forward to connecting with you soon.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.