April 25 (SeeNews) - Telekom Austria said on Tuesday its Croatian unit Vipnet recorded a 21.3% year-on-year growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to 21.2 million euro ($23.1 million) in the first three months of the year, on the back of increased revenues.
Vipnet's revenues rose by an annual 11.2% to 98.4 million euro in the three months through March, Telekom Austria said in its Q1 2017 financial report.
"The Croatian segment continued to exhibit positive operational trends also in Q1 2017, which were based on the ongoing growth of its fixed-line business and enduring solid mobile trends. Competition continues to be mostly visible in the push for higher data packages, bundles and convergent products and was additionally impacted by prolonged Christmas promotions in early Q1", Telekom Austria said.
Mobile subscribers decreased by 0.5% year-on-year, with losses in the prepaid segment, while the contract subscriber base continued to grow due to the ongoing general shift from prepaid to contract in the market, Telekom Austria noted.
|
Q1'17 |
Q1'16 |
% change |
Total revenues |
98.4 |
88.4 |
11.2 |
EBITDA |
21.2 |
17.4 |
21.3 |
EBIT |
0.5 |
-4.5 |
n.m. |
Capital expenditures |
17.0 |
14.5 |
17.3 |
On 15 February 2017 Telekom Austria Group acquired 97.68% of Metronet telekomunikacije via its Croatian subsidiary Vipnet. Since the acquisition date, Metronet has contributed revenues of 4.6 million euro and a net income of 0.5 million euro.
On the mobile segment in Croatia, a market of around 4.3 million, Vipnet competes with the local unit of Swedish telecommunications group Tele2 and with the wireless arm of incumbent Hrvatski Telekom.
Besides Vipnet, the wireless operations of Telekom Austria include Velcom in Belarus, Mobilkom Austria, Bulgaria's Mobiltel, Slovenia's Si.mobil, Serbia's Vip Mobile, and Macedonia's Vip Operator.
($=0.917791 euro)