Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Ooredoo Group's financial results call for the first half of 2024. I am Luelle Pillay, and I head up investor relations for the group. Today, I'm joined by our group CEO, Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, who will start off the presentation with an update of our strategy and delve into the consolidated results. He will be followed by our group CFO, Abdulla Al-Zaman, who will walk us through the operations performance. We will keep the presentation brief to allow enough time for your questions at the end. Please type your questions into the Q&A section of the Zoom seminar at any time during the presentation. The presentation is available on our website at ooredoo.com and also on this webcast. The recording and transcription of the session has started now, so by attending this session, you consent to being included. Please note the usual disclaimer on slide number two, and on that note, I'm handing over to Aziz. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our H1 2024 investor call. To begin, let's dive into an update of our strategy. Our strategy remains unchanged and centers around five core pillars. From a value-focused portfolio standpoint, the disposal of Ooredoo Myanmar was finally completed on the 31st of May, 2024. The sale aligns to our strategy of maintaining leading market position where we operate. We are strengthening the core by enhancing profitability and returns. You will see the progress made on this front throughout the presentation. Under Smart Telco, we are progressing on enhancing the value of the existing assets within our infrastructure stack by turning them into independent profit centers. I will expand on this in the next slide. From a talent perspective, we are focused on developing our people and enhancing our workforce. Cumulatively, our action and investments are enhancing our customers' experience. Turning to our verticals, we're progressing on all of the programs. On the tower vertical, Qatar is progressing nicely. We expect this transaction to close this year. In the data center vertical, we established a carrier-neutral data center company called MENA Digital Hub, and appointed Sunita Bottse as CEO. We are investing $1 billion over the medium to long term to increase capacity to 120 MW. In July, we completed the carve-out of our data centers assets in Kuwait. We expected Iraq and Oman to follow suit in the second half of this year. Moving to our fintech vertical. In Oman, we received our PSP license and launched walletii. walletii is a mobile money app that offers a remittance marketplace that allows users to choose from multiple providers to secure the best rate for their transaction. With this app, which is open to both Ooredoo customers and non-customers, you can make payments and send and receive money, both domestically and internationally. We are working to submit our license application in Iraq, Kuwait, and Tunisia. A key update for the half is our exciting collaboration with NVIDIA, the first of its kind in the Middle East. I will take a few minutes to highlight some key points around this collaboration. The collaboration supports our strategy to become the leading digital infrastructure provider in the MENA region and position Ooredoo at the forefront of artificial intelligence. We will bring AI capabilities to six countries: Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria, and the Maldives. This initiative goes beyond standard data center racks and GPUs. We will deliver a comprehensive AI stack to all enterprises, governments, and startups in the region to enable a wide range of use cases. Our plan includes deploying thousands of NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs in AI data centers to meet the increasing demand for AI and accelerated computing. Given the Middle East has been a hub of technological innovation over the past 5-10 years, Ooredoo aims to be a key enabler of this progress, and this collaboration with NVIDIA allows us to lead access to the technology that is economically transformative and expected to drive economic growth, job creation, and technological innovation. According to PwC's forecast, every dollar invested in generative AI is expected to yield $9.90 in economic growth across the GCC. By 2030, the overall economic impact of generative AI in the region could reach $23.5 billion annually. Specifically, generative AI is projected to generate $2.6 billion in economic benefits for Qatar, $1.6 billion for Oman, and $1.3 billion for Kuwait. Overall, AI's potential impact on the Middle East is estimated at $320 billion by 2030, with an annual growth rate between 20%-34% across the region. Given the significant potential and the rapid advancement in AI, Ooredoo is strategically positioned to capitalize on these opportunities and gain a competitive edge. Now turning to H1 2024 performance. The strong positive momentum carried into Q2 2024, driving significant improvements across all financials and operational metrics. In the first half of this year, we grew revenue and improved profitability. Key updates for the half are: as mentioned, we finalized the disposal of Myanmar after receiving all regulatory approval and recognized a gain on the disposal of QAR 118 million. As a result, please note that Myanmar 2024 results are reported up to May for the current year, whereas in 2023, it covered the full six months. On the sustainability front, we achieved a milestone by releasing our first standalone ESG report, aligned with the best practices, guidelines, and enhancing transparency for our stakeholders. In the first half, we developed growth across all financial metrics. Revenue grew by 3%. On a normalized basis, EBITDA increased by 8%. EBITDA margin improved by 2 percentage points to a strong 43%, and free cash flow increased by 6%. Net profit was up by 14%. The solid momentum seen in the first quarter continued into Q2. Revenue was up 3% in the second quarter. EBITDA showed strong growth at 7%. Our EBITDA margin improved by two percentage points. Net profit was up 3% on a normalized basis. Revenues reached QAR 11.8 billion. On a year-to-date and quarterly basis, revenue was up 3%. Growth for the quarter was driven by our operation in Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Maldives, and Tunisia, all of which sustained their momentum. Softer top-line performance in Qatar, which was impacted by lower mobile fixed services and device revenue. Oman remained under competitive pressure. Palestine continued to be impacted by the war. On to the next slide for an overview of our EBITDA performance. EBITDA for the first six months of 2024 increased by 6% to QAR 5.1 billion. Strong EBITDA growth for the quarter of 7% versus same period last year. As a reminder, EBITDA increased 6% in the first quarter, year-on-year, and 4% in Q4 2023, year-on-year. Qatar, Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Tunisia, and Maldives were the main contributors to the solid Q2 EBITDA performance. The improvement in profitability and margin were driven by service revenue and cost efficiencies. The growth in revenue and EBITDA has boosted the group's net profit. On a reported basis, net profit was up by 4% and up by 14% on a normalized basis. In the following slide, you can see the bridge between reported and normalized net profit. The main non-recurring item for the first half of 2024 was the gain on the disposal of Ooredoo Myanmar. Turning to net profit in Q2, we delivered growth on a reported basis of 15% and 3% on a normalized basis. The main non-recurring item in the second quarter was, once again, the gain on the disposal of Ooredoo Myanmar. Turning to CapEx, we strategically increased investment, mainly in Algeria, Kuwait, Iraq, Tunisia, and Qatar, investing a total of QAR 1 billion for the first half of 2024, up by 16%. Investment covered mostly network rollouts, including site and fiber, plus digital and security. Free cash flow grew by 4% to QAR 4.1 billion. The healthy growth is on the back of a strong EBITDA performance. In the first half of the year, excluding Myanmar and IOH, we increased our customer base by nearly 2 million subscribers compared to the same period last year. Our consolidated consumer base is up by 4% to 49.7 million subscribers. Including IOH, we have over 150 million customers. Looking at our balance sheets, our resilient financial position is reflected in the charts. Our leverage remain conservative at 0.6 times and below our board guidance. We have ample liquidity to cover our long dated maturities. We are also structurally hedged against interest rate hikes, with 97% of our debt at a fixed rate. Rating agencies have emphasized our conservative leverage profile, robust parent support, and strong free cash flow generation as key factors contributing to our investment-grade status. To conclude, Ooredoo delivered strong results for the first half of the year, allowing us to reaffirm the group full year's guidance. The first half results are ahead of all our full-year guidance. Our revenues are up 3%, thanks to the growing service revenues. The EBITDA margin expanded by one percentage point to 43% as we work towards improving profitability and cash generation. For 2024, we expect an EBITDA margin in the low forties, with a continued focus on cost discipline. CapEx will ramp up in the second half and fall within our guidance target of approximately QAR 3.5 billion. On this note, I leave it to Abdulla to take you through the operational review. ...Thank you, Aziz. Good afternoon, everyone. I will take you through our operational performance for the first half of 2024. Starting with our home market, Qatar. Revenue decreased by 5% on reported basis. The revenue for first half of 2023 was higher due to FIFA 2022 contracts related to B2B services, and also revenue from data center carve-out and one-off project revenue. On normalized basis, revenue decreased by 1%, impacted by lower mobile and fixed services, as well as device revenue. On a normalized basis, EBITDA increased by 1% year-on-year. For first half of 2024, EBITDA margin increased to 53%, reflecting a 5 percentage point improvement year-on-year. Improved operational efficiency on a Quarter Two contributed 2 percentage point increase to EBITDA margin from Quarter One, 2024. Moving to Kuwait, the underlying result of the operation are healthy. We grew our customer base by 2% year-on-year. Revenue expanded by 8% in local currency, supported by higher service revenue, thanks to increased usage in data and digital and higher equipment revenue. Excluding the one-off bad debt provision that was raised in Quarter 1, 2024, EBITDA grew by 3% in local currency. Next is Oman. In Oman, we continue to see higher competitive intensity in mobile segment. Revenue decreased by 3% and EBITDA decreased by 6% year-on-year. The Omani team has a clear focus on maximizing growth and market presence in Oman while driving cost efficiencies. Moving to Iraq, as you see, Asiacell continues to excel, driven by commercial and operational excellence, favorable market condition, as well as increased adoption data services. Our customer base increased by 7% to 18.3 million customers. In local currency, revenue grew by 16% and EBITDA increased by 20% year-on-year. EBITDA margin expanded by 2 percentage points to a strong 47%. Next is Algeria. Algeria was the other top performer on the group, demonstrating our ability to enhance efficiency, profitability, and higher return on strategic network investment. Our customer base grew by 5% to 13.7 million year-on-year. Improved network quality has led to expansion of our customer and higher data and digital revenue, which resulted to a local currency revenue increase by 14% year-on-year. EBITDA expanded by 20% in local currency, with a 2 percentage points increase in margin, which is now stand at 42%. Moving to Tunisia, the operation delivered a good performance for the first half of the year. Revenue increased by 4% in local currency, thanks to the continuous investment on the fixed business. Normalization for the exceptional bad debt in first half of 2023, EBITDA increased by 5%. Next is Maldives. The performance in Maldives is supported by a strategy to elevate revenue and streamline operational expenses. Revenue increased by 8% year-on-year. EBITDA increased 4%, while margin remained very healthy at 54%. In Palestine, I would like to highlight the courage and dedication of our colleagues. Despite the extreme strain, they have continued to provide support to our customer and maintain connectivity. Our customer base grew by 9% year-on-year, ending the first half of the year with 1.5 million customers. In the face of the challenge, operational landscape, and a 3% depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar, revenue declined by 2%, while EBITDA decreased by 6% year-on-year. Wrapping up with our joint venture, IOH published another healthy set of results last week. Revenue was up by 13% and EBITDA increased by 18%. This concludes the operational review. Back to IR team. Thank you. Thank you very much, Aziz and Abdulla. Before we move on to the Q&A session, I'd like to highlight the following. On this slide, you will note two conferences that we may participate in in the second half of the year. We've launched our Investor Relations App. You can scan the code on the slide. ... to download it and stay up to date with our share price, view investor events and reports, and access key data on screen easily. Lastly, we'll be hosting a capital markets day, which has been penciled in for late November. Details around this will be confirmed soon. We have now come to the Q&A part of this call. Here's how to ask a question. You can raise your virtual hand to ask a question, and I will unmute your line when it's your turn. You can also type your questions into the Q&A box. If you are on phone line, please press star nine to ask a question. For the Q&A section, I am joined by senior leadership team. In addition to Aziz and Abdullah, we have Eyas Assaf, our Deputy CFO, and René Werner, our Head of Strategy. So we're going to open up the panel for your questions. We will take a virtual question first from Jewel Giuliani. Please go ahead. Jewel? Okay, we'll move on to Nishit. Nishit Lakhotia from SICO Bank. Please go ahead, Nishit. Yes, thank you for the call. I have three questions. The first on the tower transaction. I know the transaction you mentioned is progressing with closing of Qatar, but is the transaction going a bit slower than anticipated, or this is the pace or something that's as expected? So if you can just give some color on how do we see this transaction maybe during 2024, what should we expect in terms of on the transaction? So that's the first question. Second, on the Iraq operations, what's actually driving the better margins in particular? Is it just the revenue growth or there are some cost efficiencies? Anything on that would be helpful. And finally, on your home market, we've seen, there seems to be a bit of pressure in general, even if you account for the revenue adjustments. But, how do you see this, the competitive environment that you've highlighted? How do you, how do you see this in the coming quarters, playing out on... are we seeing the worst behind, or, or there could be more pressure on the home market, in the coming quarters? Thank you. Thank you, Nishit. Can you start on tower? On your question on towers, we have made indeed quite substantial strides in preparing for the transaction. In Qatar, for example, we are also progressing quite good in other markets in terms of operation preparedness. But in most of these markets, there is basically no regulatory framework so far for the tower business as such. We're in constant dialogue with the authorities, where partially these frameworks are currently built as we speak or have to pass legislation. So that is, for us, currently, basically a timing factor on the transaction. We're still optimistic that we can close certain of these markets during the current year. Thank you. you. Thanks, René. And Iraq, what's driving the margins? Better margins? Yes. Well, the better margin, as you know, the contribution from that line from major OpCo that we have, like Iraq, for example, Algeria and Tunisia, is driving the EBITDA margin increase. And plus, we have sort of a cost optimization also is contributing to the EBITDA margin increase. The last question was on Qatar, the competitive pressure in the market. Well, if we go to Qatar as an individual, we see there is a slight pressure, but where we see growth on the EBITDA, I would say, as an absolute number and as a margin, is sustainable. And for the competitive, I say, environment in Qatar today, yes, there is a slight competition in the market, which probably will pressure or is a pressure right now, the Qatari market. Thank you. So we'll go to the typed question from Pradyumna, from HSBC: What is the share of data center CapEx within the QAR 3.5 billion CapEx guidance for the full year of 2024? Approximately 10%, I would say. You've already answered the question on the margins, but what were the drivers for the strong Q2, specifically margins in Qatar and Iraq, and is it sustainable? For Qatar, as I mentioned earlier, it is, I would say, cost optimizations, and for Iraq, it's the data usage and the environment overall market in Iraq is a very strong market, and I see it also hopefully will be sustainable, and there is a growth in the market. Thank you, Abdulla. From Ziad Itani, from Arqaam Capital: How will the deconsolidation of Myanmar impact your profits going forward? Is it reasonable to assume it was a loss-making, and now finally, its disposal will improve recurring normalized EPS by around 5%-8%? ... I think, yeah, it will have a positive impact because it used to have a pressure, especially from Forex impact. How much as percentage earning of share? We don't usually disclose this, but, we are optimistic that it will have positive impact. Myanmar was performing well in local currency- Mm. over the last couple of years, but was number one contributor to Forex foreign exchange adjustments, so I think this will create some relief. Okay, thanks, Aziz. Next question from Nikhil Bhutani: Your prepaid numbers in Qatar has seen a fall on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Can we know the reason? Has your market share reduced? I will not refer it to the market share. During the quarter one, we had a lot of visitor due to the Asian Cup, I would say. And the visitor was. We had a big number of visitor. And due to the summer also, we in Qatar have a very low season, I would say, of visitors. That's why you see the drop. It's on the customer base. Okay, let's move to a data center business question. Can you give a timeframe for your $1 billion CapEx on data center business? Also, from where the demand will come for the 120 MW capacity. I'll take... Yeah, I'll take it. We've committed to, we've committed to increase our capacity by 120, to 120 MW by 2030. We've committed $1 billion of CapEx within the next few years. We're currently, when we see and track the demand from hyperscalers and the growth of data center capacity requirement, and that's excluding the recent developments in AI, we're seeing that our initial plan was actually conservative in terms of timeline. In a certain way, if we could deliver them faster, would be better. Now, giving exact timeline is quite hard because, as you know, to build data centers, it's quite a complex enterprise from securing land acquisition, securing power capacity, and all the required regulatory approval. That being said, the constraint is not on demand. The constraint is on delivery timescales. Thanks, Aziz. Another financial question from Nikhil. Can we understand the reason behind the volatility in your impairments on financial assets on a quarter-over-quarter basis? I would refer it to always the, to the operating, or the operating performance, you know, against budget. And this is where it would trigger any, I would say, impairment. And this is due to the, as you're aware of the accounting, standards. So it's due to the performance. If, if the question was on the financial asset, which is the reserves, we announced last year, there was one time, that the provision on Qatar is around QAR 88 million. Therefore, we saw last year, we booked almost QAR 135 million. This year, we booked, we went back to the normal, bad debt provision. If the question was on the financial assets. Thanks. Thanks, yes. I'm Anonymous. two questions. Qatar pricing. Your ARPU across each of the segments have declined consistently. Can you comment on the pricing strategy in this market, and going forward, how you aim to maintain market share? And then number 2, higher operating costs in Maldives, are these one-offs? Could you give some indication of what's driving these? Thank you. I'll take the first one. Qatar pricing. Our Qatar operations is predominantly focused also on the high-value segment, where we are more exposed than our competition to that segment. Hence, the pricing strategy reflects that exposure to the high end of the market, which is obviously also attractive to the competition. So you see there are a little bit of movements along this. But again, there's an old rule of thumb in the mobile industry, 25% of your customers generate 70% of profits. So we feel quite comfortable sitting in a very strong position in that high-end segment. We are having a very strong position in the Qatari segment. Also, the expert segment, as far as interesting on postpaid, and we're kind of looking into the segment to explore there and build further market share. That's as much for the market share over there. The second question was on Maldives. What's the higher operating costs? Are these one-offs? Could you give some indication on surrounding these? Maldives thing. We'll check this point, but overall, it's not one item. It's about the operation cost. We'll... We can update you on more details on simply. Okay. Of this- The next question is also from Anonymous on dividends. Is there a plan to distribute interim dividends in line with other Qatari publicly listed companies? So on this one, if you recall at the last AGM, we've secured the approvals to enter into interim dividends policy. For this year, we're looking at the effect of the companies in the market which have taken interim dividends. We're studying the case if there is a material benefit to our shareholders in terms of value creation and in terms of share price appreciation by this type of exercise. Also, interim dividends requires a bit more, puts a bit more pressure on cash flow management during the year. So we're balancing both, and we will probably come up with a recommendation towards the end of this year to the board. Thanks, Aziz. I think, the team has touched on Qatar and the customers, but just for completeness, I'll read the question. The population has come down approximately 8%-10% in July 2024, figures versus Q1, 2024, that's March 2024 end figures in Qatar. How should we look at the rest of the year with regards to subscribers in Qatar? First of all, there's seasonality, where during the summer we usually see a population increasing in Qatar, so that's nothing new. More interesting is the year-over-year comparison. In Qatar, the statistics office just published basically fresh July numbers. In Qatar, we have roughly 80,000 more population than previous years, so there's actually growth year-over-year. Thanks. Thank you, René. Tower question from Alessandra, from Ashmore. On the tower co transactions, do you remain on track to meet the guidance that you initially issued to the markets with the roadmap at your previous Capital Markets Day? Yeah. We're, we're working very hard to meet the guidance. As previously mentioned by René, some of the elements in the timeline are beyond our control with the regulatory approval. We've done quite a lot of progress in the last few months, especially in Qatar, in terms of the regulatory approval. We've done progress in Iraq, and we're working very hard in Tunisia and Algeria. So we're striving to close at least Qatar by the end of this year. That's our main goal, and to fold in then very quickly the remaining countries within probably the first half of next year. So overall, as a transaction timeline, total transaction timeline, I think we're in line with our initial plan, even if some of the building blocks are slightly moving back and forth. Thanks, Aziz. From Hamza: Given the rapid advancements in AI, how does Ooredoo envision integrating artificial intelligence into its core services, including customer, customer experience and network efficiency? So, AI, we're looking at it from two standpoints. I think, there's the first part is how does Ooredoo integrates AI within its own practices for its own business? And on this, I know there's been a lot of hype with generative AI over the last probably 12-18 months. That being said, Ooredoo has already been integrating, for instance, in the network planning side and network resilience side, machine learning over the past years to improve our efficiency in terms of CapEx deployment and also availability of network. So we've already been using AI tools for a while. We're of course, looking at the new tools and new solutions to see how that could increase our efficiency, our productivity, and our customer experience. First cases are, of course, on the customer-facing side, which is on customer care, advanced CVM. But there's a number of cases which can stem through the whole Ooredoo workflows, even in the finance department, from credit risk analysis, et cetera. So there's really a lot of pieces where we can integrate AI within our business. The second part, which is also very important, is how do we monetize and sell AI? As you remember, we've signed an agreement with NVIDIA. We're the leading telecom provider in the region, signing the first NCP deal for the region and as a NVIDIA Cloud Partner, which will allow us to get priority access to their chips. And this will allow us to not just sell data centers, racks, but we will be selling GPUs as a service and also sell added value services above that from NVIDIA and other partners. Thank you. We have another question from Alessandra on data centers. On the data center expansion, could you give any comment on the competition within the market, both within your own market and across the others that you are building capacity? So, historically, and as of to date, in most of the market where we operate, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think we command around, roughly 60% market share of installed capacity. There's a lot of growth. We're de facto, one of the first called for to cater to that growth. Of course, there is competition. Now, why we see data centers as a great opportunity, not just because of its growth profile, but also due to the barriers to entry. In the regions we operate, it's actually quite complicated to build, operate data centers in terms of regulatory landscape, acquisition of land, land ownership. But also, when we talk about data center, it's not just about hosting the racks and, for instance, GPU as a service, if we're talking about AI, but you also need the whole connectivity landscape where Ooredoo is the market leader. We own seven landing station across the region. We own a lot of fiber network in terms of backhaul and international connectivity, and all these pieces create barriers to entry and allows us to consolidate our position in the market. Thanks, Aziz. I don't see any more questions, so any hands raised? Sure, regarding- Sure. The question that we checked, as Abdulla said, there's two parts: There's the cost of sales and the startup cost. This is the main reasons for the increase in OpEx, but still, EBITDA has grown even with this increase in OpEx. Thanks. Thanks. Yes, clarified. I don't see any more questions coming through. So since there are no more questions, I'd like to thank you for participating in Ooredoo's H1 2024 call. The next results release will be likely towards the end of October. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to the investor relations team. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye.