Telecom service provider Mobily has suspended its chief executive officer Khalid al-Kaf on account of accounting errors.
Kaf was the Gulf’s longest-serving CEO in the sector, taking the position at Mobily in 2005 after 19 years at United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat, which owns 27.5 percent of Mobily.
Saudi Arabia’s second-biggest telecoms network operator said that Mobiliy’s deputy CEO Serkan Okandan will have temporary charge pending an investigation into the accounting errors.
Mobily, earlier this month, announced a restatement of its results which it blamed on accounting errors, wiping out 1.43 billion riyals ($381 million) of previously reported profits, Reuters reported on Sunday.
On November 5 Etisalat cut its own profits by 162 million dirhams following Mobily’s results restatement. Prior to the accounting correction, Mobily said its annual profit in 2013 rose 11 percent to 6.68 billion riyals.
The company has suspended Kaf until Mobily’s audit committee completes its investigation into these errors.
Okandan, Etisalat’s chief financial officer, was appointed as deputy CEO of Mobily in October, while Etisalat’s chief executive Ahmad Julfar is also a director of Mobily and chairman of its Risk Management Committee. Another senior Etisalat executive Essa Al-Haddad also sits on Mobily’s board, according to Etisalat’s 2013 annual report.
Mobily, which began operations in 2005, ending Saudi Telecom (STC) monopoly, has more than quadrupled its annual profits from 2006 to 2009 to reach 3 billion riyals that year.
editor@telecomlead.com
