August 2 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian telecommunications group BTC said on Tuesday it turned to a net profit of 845,000 levs ($483,700/432,000 euro) in the first half of the year from a loss of 6.8 million levs in the same period of 2015 mainly thanks to higher revenue.
The telecom's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) climbed 9.3% on the year to 127.3 million levs in January-June, while its adjusted EBITDA fell 6.5% to 157.2 million levs, it said in its interim financial report.
BTC, which operates under the brand name Vivacom, recorded total revenues of 429.6 million levs in the first half, up 6.1% year-on-year on the back of higher mobile services revenue and revenues from the acquired in July 2015 radio and TV transmission services provider NURTS. Increased revenue from provision of pay-TV services and sales of handsets also contributed for the improvement. According to BTC, it is currently the leading mobile operator in terms of revenues.
BTC's revenue from mobile services rose 6.6% on the year to 246 million levs, whereas fixed-line services generated 5.4% less revenue of 164.8 million levs. NURTS' revenue was 22.6 million levs.
The number of Vivacom's mobile subscribers increased by an annual 3.6% to 3.06 million at the end of June, with the share of post-paid subscriptions rising to 86% from 85%. On the other hand, the number of fixed-line subscribers dropped 12.1% to 987,000. BTC reported it is the third operator in the country in terms of subscribers number.
In the data segment, Vivacom's fixed broadband subscribers increased 11.1% to 411,000.
The company's 4G network, launched in May, covered 39.5% of the population at end-June, and coverage is expected to grow to 75% by September.
The operator said it plans to invest further in its mobile network, including in optimisation of infrastructure with deployment of single radio access network technology and LTE upgrade. It plans also to expand its fibre-optic network coverage and to continue to invest in its digital TV services.
On Bulgarian mobile segment, BTC competes with the local units of Norway's Telenor and Telekom Austria, as well as with 4G operator Max.
Bulgaria has a population of around 7.2 million.
(1 euro=1.95583 levs)