BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/11/2010

Velcom revenues up 21% y-on-y to EUR 93.2 mln in Q3

Belarusian mobile operator Velcom saw its revenues grow by 20.8 percent to EUR 93.2 million in Q3 as a consequence of the higher mobile communication subscriber base, which led to an increase in monthly fee and traffic revenues. Equipment revenues were bolstered by the introduction of netbooks to the market in July. At the same time, foreign exchange translation impacted revenues positively by EUR 3.8 million in the third quarter. Despite an increase in operating expenses from EUR 40.4 million to EUR 52.3 million driven by higher material expenses, EBITDA comparable grew by 17 percent to EUR 42.2 million. A EUR 2 million foreign currency translation effect positively impacted EBITDA comparable. EBITDA including restructuring and impairment charges increased to EUR 42.2 million as an impairment charge of EUR 290 million was recorded in the third quarter of 2009 due to the devaluation of the Belarus Ruble. Consequently, operating income (EBIT) increased to EUR 20.8 million in the third quarter versus operating loss of EUR 271.3 million in the year-earlier quarter. At the same time, capex was down 16.4 percent year-on-year to EUR 7.9 million due to lower access investments. In the same quarter, Velcom increased its subscriber base by 6.1 percent year-on-year to 4.2 million customers, supported by strong growth of its mobile broadband customer base, which reached 86,222. However, competitive pressure from the third operator led to a 1.5 percent year-on-year decrease of the mobile market share to 42 percent. As a result of higher usage, ARPU increased to EUR 6.7 in the third quarter from EUR 6.2 in the same period of the previous year.

Source:

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/velcom-revenues-up-21-y-on-y-to-eur-932-mln-in-q3