Greece's Cosmote Bulgarian Unit Posts 23.9% Rise in Jan-Sept Operating Income

Globul's revenue rose by 10.2% to 331.8 million euro and operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) grew 18.8% to 140.1 million euro, OTE said in its quarterly financial report.

The blended average minutes of usage (AMOU) increased by about 19% to 109 minutes, reflecting a 40% increase in pre-paid AMOU following commercial initiatives to stimulate usage and the customer base rationalization, the company said.

The blended average revenue per user (APRU), however, declined by some 6.0% to just over 9.0 euro, due to lower post-paid ARPU, resulting from the higher subscriber numbers in this category.

Globul had 4,019,101 clients at end-September 2008, compared to 3,657,250 a year ago. It competes with MobilTel, owned by Telekom Austria, and Vivatel, owned by Bulgaria's dominant fixed-line operator BTC, in the market of 7.6 million people. Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007.

Cosmote's operating income reached 548.8 million euro though September, up 15.1%. Its consolidated revenue reached 2.42 billion euro, up by 7.4% on the year.

Cosmote, which also operates in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia, said its Romanian unit, Cosmote Romania, was a major contributor to the group's growth in the third quarter.

($ = 0.7702 euro)