Bahrain: Shareholders of Batelco Group, the Bahrain-based telecoms operator with operations across 14 countries, has approved a full year cash dividend of BD45.7 million ($121.2 million) after reporting record revenues.

Batelco chairman Sheikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said revenue was up 7 percent year-on-year to reach BD405.9 million, driven by strong performance in its home market.

“We have a strong platform in place to build on in order to sustain long-term success for the Group and continue to deliver strong value for our shareholders,” he said.

Batelco Group CEO Ihab Hinnawi described 2018 as a "turnaround year", supported by the ongoing rollout of the group’s transformation strategy and key investments in targeted services.

“We are very pleased to note that diversifying our revenues has paid back, with particular positive impact achieved by the acceleration of fibre implementation and data penetration. Our efforts resulted in significant improvement for fixed broadband, datacom services and for digital services across our markets of operation,” he said.

“We will continue throughout the coming year to further enhance our relationship with customers and use business intelligence and data analytics as key drivers to create more customer centric operations,” he added.