PODGORICA (Montenegro), November 2 (SeeNews) – Montenegrin telecommunications company Crnogorski Telekom [MNG:TECG] said on Wednesday its net profit dropped 37% to 8.7 million euro ($9.6 million) in the first nine months of 2016.
Revenues fell 8% to 69.4 million euro through September, while total operating income decreased 8.3% to 69.6 million euro, Crnogorski Telekom said in a filing with the Montenegro bourse.
In a separate statement posted earlier this week on the company's website, Telekom said that the drop in revenues is mainly related to the regulation of wholesale and retail prices, a decrease in revenue from fixed-line telephony and a reduction in the volume of incoming traffic.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), excluding special items, declined by 16% to 24.0 million euro in the first nine months of 2016, while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) dropped by 33% to 9.7 million euro.
At the end of September, 368,600 Telekom SIM cards were in use, a growth of 2% compared to 2015. The number of prepaid cards fell 8%, while the number of postpaid cards increased 17%, the company said, adding that it remained the leader on the postpaid market.
Subscribers to the company's fixed-line service dropped 7% on the year to 140,300, while subscribers to the digital TV service decreased to 60,100 through September, down 6% on the year.
The number of Crnogorski Telekom's broadband subscribers dropped 5% on the year to 73,100 at the end of September.
Crnogorski Telekom is part of Hungary's Magyar Telekom.
Montenegro has a population of around 630,000.
($=0.902528 euro)