SOFIA (Bulgaria), March 30 (SeeNews) – Bulgarian telecommunications group BTC [BUL:5BT], operating under the Vivacom brand, said on Monday its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by an annual 3.2% to 2.9 million levs ($1.6 million/1.5 million euro) in 2014.
The company's total revenue edged down 0.7% over the year to 805.9 million levs in 2014, BTC said in a statement.
Last week LIC33, which describes itself as a group of companies bringing together European Union investors, said it has acquired for 1 euro the 43% stake in BTC held by controversial businessman Tsvetan Vasilev, as well as his shareholding in five other companies, for one euro against a commitment to repay the companies' debts, estimated at 900 million euro ($977.7 million). The deal is pending regulatory approval.
In its statement BTC said 55% of its revenues were generated by mobile services, while fixed voice services and fixed internet accounted for 24% and 12%, respectively, of its total revenue.
In 2014, Vivacom invested 21% of its revenue, compared to 20% a year earlier, it added.
Vivacom's mobile subscribers numbered 2.9 million at the end of 2014, up by 11.6% on the year, while fixed phone subscribers declined by an annual 9.8% to 1.2 million. Fixed internet users rose by an annual 8.8% to 400,000 at the end of last year.
BTC also said it continues to develop its optic network, which currently covers 883,000 households in 15 cities. It will be expanded in 2015 to include five more cities – Dobrich, Silistra, Pleven, Dupnitsa and Smolyan.
On the mobile services segment in Bulgaria, BTC competes with Mobiltel, a unit of Telekom Austria Group, and Telenor Bulgaria, part of Norway's Telenor.
(1 euro=1.95583 Bulgarian levs)