Greece's Cosmote Albanian Arm Jan-Sept Operating Income Falls 31.6%

The number of AMC's subscribers reached 1.75 million at the end of September, up from 1.32 million a year earlier, OTE said in its financial report.

In the third quarter alone, AMC reported 227,000 net new subscribers, it added.

Pressure in AMC revenues and average revenue per user continues, reflecting regulatory and competitive impact on wholesale and retail pricing. As a result, AMC’s operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) margin declined by 9.5 percentage points to 57.9%, OTE said.

Following are AMC's financial results (in millions of euro):

Cosmote increased its stake in AMC (www.amc.al) to 97.6% earlier this year, after buying 12.6% from Albania’s government for 48.2 million euro. In 2000 Cosmote bought an 85% stake in AMC, Albania's first mobile operator, for $85.6 million.

AMC competes with Vodafone Albania (www.vodafone.al) and Eagle Mobile in the country of 3.2 million people. Albania recently awarded its fourth mobile operator licence to Kosovo’s postal and telecommunications operator PTK.

Cosmote group total operating income fell by 11% to 488.6 million euro in January-September and its nine-month OIBDA fell by 3.6% to 824.7 million euro. Its total revenue fell by 6.5% to 2.3 billion euro. The group's total customer base reached 21.4 million at the end of September.

Cosmote also operates units in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria.

($=0.6747 euro)