Telecom withLower Revenues, Higher Profit
The parent company generated net revenues of EUR 494m from January to September, which is down 6% on the same period last year. Net profit fell by 22% to EUR 43.5m.
The company blamed trends in the industry for the decline in revenues in a press release posted on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. Details are being presented at a news conference in Ljubljana.
"Revenues generated by the once primary services of fixed and mobile telephony are in decline, while growth in broadband connections and services based on that technology is slowing," the release reads.
Nine-month group operating profit (EBIT) at EUR 63.2m was on a par with the profit generated in the comparable period last year, but above planned EBIT. Similar trend was seen in EBITDA at EUR 198.4m.
Net financial debt was down by EUR 52m to stand at EUR 336.7m, "meaning that the Slovenian national operator is among the least indebted leading operators in Europe", the company stated.
Telekom Slovenije projects EBITDA to the tune of up to EUR 250m and a net profit of EUR 43m for the whole of 2012.
Capital expenditure was up 22% y/y to EUR 60.9m in the first nine months of the year. Major investments include those in Kosovo and in TSmedia and GVO, while a major recent project is the construction of e next-generation LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile network in Slovenia.
The telecoms group had a total of 2.7m fixed and mobile telephony connections at the end of September, an increase of 1% on the same period last year. The number of broadband connections is gradually stagnating, while the number of fixed connections continues to decline.
The Group recorded growth in mobile connections, primarily owing to growth at the Macedonian company One and at Ipko in Kosovo.