February 13 (SeeNews) - Telecommunications company A1 Bulgaria, formerly known as Mobiltel, boosted its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 6.1% to 138 million euro ($156 million) in 2018, its parent company A1 Telekom Austria Group said.
A1 Bulgaria's revenue rose 3.5% to 446.2 million euro last year, A1 Telekom Austria said in an annual financial statement on Tuesday.
The rise was mainly due to higher revenue from equipment sales, which increased to 89.4 million euro in 2018 from 59.4 million euro.
Capital expenditure rose 6.5% to 86.5 million euro last year, as it grew by an annual 37.8% to 35.6 million euro in the last three months of 2018.
In the fourth quarter alone, A1 Bulgaria generated an EBITDA of 30.5 million euro, up 6.1% year-on-year, as its revenue increased by 3.6% to 116.2 million euro.
A1 Bulgaria's wireless subscribers decreased by an annual 1.1% to 3.9 million at the end of 2018.
A1 Bulgaria, which used to operate under the Mtel brand, was renamed and rebranded in May, in line with a decision of its parent - Telekom Austria Group, to roll out its A1 brand across all of the group's operations.
In Bulgaria, A1 competes with the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), which operates under the brand name Vivacom, Telenor Bulgaria - a unit of Czech Republic-based investment group PPF, and local Max Telecom, which was set up by the founder of Mobiltel.
($ = 0.8848 euro)