Khaled Biyari will become the new chief executive of Saudi Telecom later this year, the company announced on Tuesday, shortly after it posted a disappointing set of quarterly financials.
Biyari, who currently serves as senior vice president for technology and operations at Saudi Telecom Company (STC), will take up his post on 27 April.
The CEO role has been vacant since the resignation of Khaled Al Ghoneim in March 2013. STC’s chairman Abdulaziz Al Sugair has been acting CEO in the interim.
In addition to his position at STC, Biyari also holds board seats at STC Advanced Solutions, Kuwaiti mobile operator Viva, Dubai’s Oger Telecom, Turk Telekom and Avea.
On Monday STC reported financial results for the fourth quarter of last year and the numbers made for grim reading.
The telco posted a net profit of 2.44 billion riyals (€560 million) for the three months to the end of December, down by 32.6% on the year-ago quarter.
It gave a number of reasons for the slide, including a 19% rise in opex on the back of a SAR399 million (€92 million) one-off charge and growth in SG&A expenses. STC also booked SAR164 million in losses from investment accounted for under the equity method compared with gains in Q4 2013, and saw an increase in its tax bill.
Revenue grew by 5.2% to SAR11.85 billion (€2.7 billion).
For the full year STC posted net profit of SAR11 billion, up 11.2% on 2013, on revenues of SAR46.11 billion (€10.6 billion).
"The financial results achieved reflects the efforts being made to constantly evolve, improve and develop the company strategy and operations both domestically and internationally," said Al Sugair, in a statement.
"The company will continue to maintain an acute focus on reinforcing our presence in our home market," he added. "At the same time, we continue to rationalise [the] STC international portfolio, and evaluate options for some of these investments in order to take appropriate actions in the best interest of the shareholders."
