UPDATE 2-Tariff war hits Egypt's Mobinil Q3 net, down 8 pct

* Net profit 497 mln Eg pounds vs 541 mln

* Firm, analysts say Ramadan discounts hit results

* Subscriber growth rises steadily, total 24.6 mln

(adds analysts quotes, background, byline)

By Alastair Sharp

CAIRO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Egypt's Mobinil (EMOB.CA) said its net profit fell 8.1 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter, when its market saw "very agressive" price competition.

The country's largest mobile operator by subscribers reported a profit of 497 million Egyptian pounds ($90.8 million) in the third quarter, the low end of expectations from six analysts.

Mobinil added 1.771 million new customers in the quarter for a total of 24.625 million by end-September, the firm said on Monday.

The company added however that its blended average revenue per user (ARPU) dipped 19 percent to 38 pounds, indicating that aggressive promotions during the period had cut into revenue, which came in at 2.793 billion pounds. It was 2.664 billion pounds a year ago.

"The Egyptian market witnessed very aggressive competitive price moves during the third quarter," Mobinil's Chairman Alex Shalaby said in the earnings statement.

Six analysts polled by Reuters ahead of the results forecast profit in a range between 494 million and 593 million pounds, on revenue between 2.615 billion and 2.976 billion pounds.

"We had forecast that the quarter would be a bit weaker than the second quarter because of the Ramadan effect, which caused lower usage and higher costs," said EFG-Hermes telecom analyst Nadine Ghobrial.

"There were a lot of promotions that we believe have put pressure on the effective tariff levels," she added.

All three mobile operators offered cut-price rates for calls during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which last year fell in the fourth quarter, including rate reductions for Egyptian pilgrims travelling to Saudi Arabia. [ID:nLJ510754]

Mobinil teamed up with the Zain 7030.SE network in Saudi to offer a roaming rate of 0.50 pounds per minute to receive calls from Egypt during the month. The firm also offered a day-time rate of 0.05 pounds starting from the third minute within Egypt.

"They made strong additions for subscribers as expected due to seasonality and the Ramadan period but this was at the price of ARPUs, because they wanted to make aggressive promotions like the other operators," said Ahmed Adel, telecom analyst at Naeem.

Blended ARPU was 47 pounds in the third quarter of 2008, slipping to 40 pounds by the second quarter this year.

Mobinil's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was 1.268 billion pounds, and the EBITDA margin was in line with expectations at 45.4 percent. ($1 = 5.4754 Egyptian pounds) (Editing by Hans Peters)