Moroccan telecom firm sales jumped 7 percent in 1997

The Moroccan telecom Company (Ittissalat Al-Maghrib/IAM-state-owned) said on Thursday its sales increased by 7 percent in 1997 over 1996 to stand at 6.51 billion Dh (1 $ is 9.3 Dh).

Some 530 million Dh of this sales, ie. 41 percent were generated by the mobile phone (GSM) network.

IAM, which inherited the Office National Des postes et Telecommunications (ONPT/dissolved), targets a sales of 7.5 million Dh in 1999. It also expects its GSM revenue to exceed 1 billion DH.

With a growth rate of more than 40 percent, the mobile phone network proved to be a very lucrative activity for the company.

GSM subscribers witnessed a steady increase to reach 100,000 at end of September.

IAM plans to increase the number of its clients to 164,000 subscribers by the end of 1999.

In view of this attractive performance, Ittissalat Al-Maghrib expects further growth in 1999 with a net profit jumping to 1.0 billion dirhams.

IAM is expected to record some 900 million dirhams in net profit in 1998, going up from 836 million dirhams in 1997.

These positive results allowed the company to contribute an annual 3.8 billion Dh to the state budget, IAM Director-General, Abdeslam Ahizoune, said.

In a bid to attract more clients to its GSM and network, IAM announced intention to gradually decrease by up to 25 percent international telephone and GSM calls.