DOHA (Reuters) – Syria will take part in December’s Arab Games despite the country’s suspension from the Arab League, an event official told Reuters on Sunday.

“They will participate and we are welcoming all athletes from the Arab nations,” Abdulla al-Mulla, acting director for ceremonies at the 22-country Doha Games said.

“We never mix up politics with sport, so they are most welcome to come to Doha. And the confirmation, we have that in writing from Syria.”

Asked if Syria might withdraw from the Dec. 9-23 Games if the political stand-off between President Bashar al-Assad and his Arab counterparts worsened, Mulla said: “It’s their decision, but the doors are always open for all the Arab athletes.”

The Arab League was imposing economic and political sanctions on Damascus and had appealed to member states to withdraw their ambassadors, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said on Saturday.

It also called on the Syrian Army to stop killing civilians. Assad has cracked down on protesters against his rule and the United Nations says more than 3,500 people have been killed in seven months of violence in the country.

Some 6,000 athletes are expected at the Arab Games which will include soccer, swimming, athletics, gymnastics, equestrian events and basketball.

DUBAI, Nov 9 (Reuters) – In the gritty streets of Deira, the old commercial heart of Dubai, lurks a threat to some of the region’s biggest telecommunications firms.

It is here on the northern bank of Dubai creek, among the grocery stores and barbers, the discount tailors and food stalls, where low-wage workers come after a day’s toil to phone their family and friends overseas.

Instead of using their pre-paid mobile phones, they cram into the sweaty booths of dilapidated backstreet Internet shops to call home at prices a fraction of those charged by telecom operators Etisalat , the United Arab Emirates’ most valuable listed company, and rival du .

These shops dodge government inspectors to offer unlicenced Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services — free Internet-to-Internet calls and cheap Internet-to-phone calls. The UAE’s regulator says only licenced companies can provide VoIP.

“It’s less than a tenth of the cost of Etisalat, that’s why I come here,” said Mansour, 21. The Afghan works in a Deira clothes shop and calls his family in Kabul three times a week from a 14-booth VoIP shop run by managers Mamun and Shajib, both 22.

The Bangladeshi pair have been offering VoIP services for more than a year and spoke on condition that their full names and company details were not disclosed.

“For internet we can only charge 3 dirhams (82 U.S. cents) an hour and that’s not enough to pay two salaries, shop rent, licences and broadband costs,” said Shajib. “We would have shut if it wasn’t for VoIP, but this is very popular and more and more people are telling their friends.

DUBAI, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Kuwait’s Zain blamed foreign exchange losses on Tuesday after the telecoms operator’s third-quarter net profit fell 13 percent to miss analysts’ estimates.

The former monopoly made a net profit of 70 million dinars ($254 million), according to Reuters calculations. This compares with a profit of 80.31 million dinars in the same period a year ago.

Analysts polled by Reuters on average expected the firm to post a quarterly profit of 71.91 million dinars.

Zain, which holds mobile licences in seven countries including Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Iraq, made foreign exchange losses of $25 million in the three months to Sept. 30.

The operator’s quarterly revenue was 329 million dinars, down from 337 million dinars a year ago.

“We have seen significant growth in broadband revenues particularly as a result of increased use of social networking sites and applications via smart phones and tablets,” group chief executive Nabeel Bin Salamah said in a statement.

“The gap between voice and data revenues as a percentage of total company revenues is diminishing.”

DUBAI, Oct 31 (Reuters) – UAE telecoms operator du’s margin will rise in the fourth quarter, it said when beating forecasts with a 50 percent rise in quarterly net profit, driven by higher mobile revenue.

Du, which ended Etisalat’s domestic monopoly in 2007, said its third-quarter EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) margin was 34 percent, up from 32 percent in the second quarter and 30 percent a year ago.

“The name of the game is better efficiency in our operations,” Chief Executive Osman Sultan told reporters on Monday. “We are moving towards better EBITDA margins, not only for the coming quarter, but hopefully for the next year.”

Du made a third-quarter net profit of 244 million dirhams ($66.5 million), compared with a forecast for 214 million.

“The main growth came from mobile revenues,” said Sultan.

Du has provisioned to pay half of its 2011 profit in royalties, or tax, to the federal government. This is the same percentage levied on Etisalat, but in 2010 du paid only 15 percent in a surprise decision by the government. Du is still waiting for confirmation of the 2011 royalty, Sultan said.

Third-quarter revenue was 2.23 billion dirhams, up from 1.74 billion a year earlier.

DUBAI, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Oman’s Nawras , which reported an 8 percent rise in third-quarter profit on Wednesday, plans to lower spending from 2012 and cut costs, the telecoms firm’s chief financial officer said.

The operator, which is majority owned by Qatar Telecommunications Co (Qtel) and launched services in 2005, will invest 140 million rials ($364.6 million) in its fixed and mobile networks in 2010 to 2011.

“Next year and the years after that, the level of investment will be much lower because we have more or less rolled out the entire network,” Jorgen Latte told Reuters.

“We will keep our borrowing at current levels of 66 million rials, but we will refinance to have a more flexible structure of our debt facility.

“There’s no need to borrow extra funds because our operations are generating enough cash for investments.”

Nawras’s third-quarter net profit rose 8 percent to 13.5 million rials as mobile data usage increased to offset falling subscriber numbers. This compares with a profit of 12.5 million rials in the same period a year ago.

One analyst who spoke to Reuters forecast the operator would post a quarterly profit of 10.6 million rials.

DUBAI, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Indebted telecoms operator Zain Saudi 7030.SE will ask shareholders to approve cutting its capital by 66 percent to alleviate mounting losses, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

This is the third time the board has announced such a plan, but the capital restructuring was sidelined by now-aborted deals to sell stakes in both Zain Saudi and parent Zain (ZAIN.KW: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). [ID:nL5E7KT05W]

Zain Saudi has not set a date for a shareholders’ meeting to discuss cutting its share capital to 4.8 riyals ($1.28 billion) from 14 billion riyals.

This will alleviate accumulated losses of 9.2 billion riyals, or 66 percent of its paid-up capital. Bourse rules say listed firms must cut their capital if losses exceed 75 percent.

The board wants to then issue 6 billion riyals of new shares.

“The rights issue will consist of raising fresh equity and the capitalisation of subordinated shareholder loans to the company,” Zain Saudi said in a statement.

The new equity will be used to to reduce bank debt and enhance the operator’s network, it added.

DUBAI, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) on Wednesday reported an 8 percent fall in its third-quarter net profit, its sixth straight quarterly decline, as stiffer domestic competition weighed on revenue.

The former monopoly made a net profit of 17.75 million dinars ($47.23 million), according to Reuters calculations. This compares with a profit of 19.3 million dinars in the same period a year ago.

One analyst polled by Reuters forecast the firm would post a quarterly profit of 22 million dinars.

Revenue and profit were “impacted throughout 2011 by significant and ongoing competitive pressures in Bahrain”, Batelco chairman Shaikh Hamad Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa said in a statement.

Batelco competes against units of Kuwait’s Zain and Saudi Telecom Co in its home market.

Batelco, which in September scrapped a joint purchase of a 25-percent stake in Zain Saudi , said revenues were 82.3 million dinars in the quarter, down from 85.3 million dinars a year earlier.

The group still wants to expand overseas, chief executive Shaikh Mohamed said in the statement.

DUBAI, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Omani telecoms operator Nawras on Wednesday reported an 8 percent rise in third-quarter net profit, beating an analyst estimate, as mobile data usage increased to offset falling subscriber numbers.

The firm, majority owned by Qatar Telecommunications Co (Qtel), made a third-quarter net profit of 13.5 million rials ($35 million), it said in a statement to the Oman bourse. This compares with a profit of 12.5 million rials in the same period a year ago.

One analyst polled by Reuters forecast the operator would post a quarterly profit of 10.6 million rials.

“We are encouraged by growth in pre-paid mobile data, including Blackberry and smart phone revenue contributions, which confirms our belief in the potential of the mobile data market for Nawras,” chief executive Ross Cormack said in the statement.

“Our roll-out of the fixed service network has more than doubled home and business broadband customers on a quarter-on-quarter basis.”

Nawras said revenues increased to 49.2 million rials in the quarter, up from 47.7 million rials a year earlier.

The firm had 1.95 million fixed and mobile subscribers at September-end, down 3.6 percent from a year earlier. It said this was “primarily due to regulatory changes in the rules for counting the customer base”.

DUBAI, Oct 25 (Reuters) – DP World , the world’s third-largest port operator, on Tuesday warned of tough conditions for its customers in 2012, but said it would achieve throughput growth of more than 7 percent next year.

The company, one of the more profitable assets of debt-laden Dubai World , said third-quarter gross volumes were 14.4 million TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent container unit, according to a statement. This is up 10 percent from 13.1 million TEU in the year-earlier period.

“What we have been hearing from our customers basically, is negative news,” chief executive Mohammed Sharaf said on a conference call with reporters.

“However, if you look at consultants’ advice they are saying 2012 is going to see 7 percent (throughput) growth. Our growth is going to be higher than that as usual.”

DP World’s consolidated terminals handled 20.5 million TEU in the first nine months of the year, it said in a statement to the Nasdaq Dubai bourse, with growth mostly coming from the United Arab Emirates, Africa and Americas.

“Whilst uncertainty continues to affect the global economy our business continues to perform well,” Sharaf said in the statement. “Despite the tougher fourth quarter comparatives, we continue to believe that we will achieve full year EBITDA in line with expectations.”

In August, DP World said its first-half profit grew four-fold as it booked a gain from the sale of its Australian operations last year.

DUBAI, Oct 25 (Reuters) – DP World , the world’s third-largest port operator, on Tuesday said containers volumes rose 10 percent in the third quarter, helped by growth in the UAE, Africa and the Americas.

The company, one of the more profitable assets of debt-laden Dubai World , said third-quarter gross volumes were 14.4 million TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent container unit, according to a statement. This compares with 13.1 million TEU in the year-earlier period.

“Whilst uncertainty continues to affect the global economy our business continues to perform well,” Mohammed Sharaf, DP World chief executive said in the statement.

“Despite the tougher fourth quarter comparatives, we continue to believe that we will achieve full year EBITDA in line with expectations.”

DP World’s consolidated terminals handled 20.5 million TEU in the first nine months of the year.

“The growth in our consolidated portfolio was primarily from the UAE, Africa and Americas regions,” the statement said.

In August, DP World said its first-half profit grew four-fold as it booked a gain from the sale of its Australian operations last year.