Morocco's Meditel 2007 profit more than doubles

RABAT, March 6 (Reuters) - Morocco's second-biggest telecoms company Meditel said its net income more than doubled last year as its client base grew 29 percent, despite tough competition from dominant player Maroc Telecom IAM.CS.

Meditel's gross sales grew 13 percent to 6.8 billion dirhams ($912 million) while net profit leaped 132 percent on a comparable basis to 541 million dirhams, said the company, a 50-50 joint venture between Spain's Telefonica (TEF.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Portugal Telecom PTEL.LS.

Meditel's earnings have soared in the past two years as years of heavy network investment paid off and its subscriber base expanded.

The operator said the latest results were boosted by strong demand for pre-paid services. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 12 percent and represented 46 percent of net sales, up from 44 percent in 2006.

"These results position Meditel as one of the best-performing subsidiaries of the Telefonica and Portugal Telecom groups," Meditel said in the statement emailed on Thursday, which was dated March 4.

Maroc Telecom said last month that mobile phone use in the north African country grew 30 percent in 2007, despite a severe drought that depressed household incomes, and airtime prices dipped 25 percent. (Reporting by Tom Pfeiffer; editing by Rory Channing)