Telekom Romania sees lower revenues despite mobile growth in Q1
Telekom Romania, the country’s biggest telecom group in terms of revenues, posted EUR 250 million total revenues in the first quarter (Q1), down by about 1% compared to the same period of 2015, according to an official press release.
The group increased its revenues on the mobile and converged services segments, but saw a significant drop in fixed services for the retail segment.
“The first three months of 2016 reflect a positive performance in terms of revenues for mobile operations, while fixed revenues registered a decrease, partially due to the downward trend on the fixed voice segment. The fixed-mobile convergent proposition, under the MagentaONE offers, remained an important growth driver for Telekom Romania, with an increase by 30% in the quarter compared to the end of 2015,” said Anastasios Tzoulas, Chief Financial Officer of Telekom Romania.
The operating profit (EBITDA) went down by 30%, to EUR 38.8 million, with a steeper drop on the fixed segment.
Telekom Romania Communications, the former Romtelecom, posted EUR 137 million revenues, down by 7.8% compared to the first three months of 2015. The decline was due to lower revenues from fixed services for the retail clients. The company’s EBITDA was EUR 20.5 million, down by 37.5%.
“On the TV segment, customer base increased by 2.5% in Q1 2016 compared to Q1 2015, reaching 1.449 million (…) Broadband subscribers decreased in Q1 2016 by 1.8% to 1.195 million compared to the same period of 2015,” the company stated.
The company added 62,000 MagentaONE fixed-mobile convergent services clients in the first quarter of this year, reaching 270,000 customers at end-March.
Telekom Romania Mobile Communications, the former Cosmote, had revenues of EUR 113 million, 9.5% higher than in the same period of last year. However, its EBITDA dropped by 18%, to EUR 18.3 million.
“At the end of Q1 2016, the total customer base stood at 5.654 million, down by 4% compared to Q1 2015. Postpaid customer base remained relatively stable in the quarter, up by 0.8% compared to Q1 2015, accounting for 29% of the total customer base,” the company announced.
Telekom Romania Communications and Telekom Romania Mobile Communications are both part of Deutsche Telekom group, which controls the two companies via Greek group OTE.
Deutsche Telekom’s quarterly report features some different figures than those reported by Telekom Romania and OTE. According to Deutsche Telekom, the group’s revenues in Romania dropped by 2.9% in the first quarter, to EUR 234 million. This would mean that Telekom Romania has fallen behind Orange Romania in terms of revenues.
Telekom Romania sees stable revenues but lower profits in 2015
Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com
