LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), July 26 (SeeNews) – Telekom Austria said its wireless unit in Slovenia, Si.mobil, posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 22.3 million euro ($26.0 million) in the first half of 2017, down 16.1% on the year, chiefly due to increased costs and rebranding activities.
Si.mobil’s revenues grew an annual 2.4% to 106.4 million euro in the six months through June, primarily driven by equipment revenues on the back of higher sales prices due to higher value handsets, Telekom Austria said in an interim financial report on Tuesday.
"Fixed-line service revenues increased due to price adjustments for all tariffs as of 1 March 2017 and RGU growth," the company noted. "Mobile service revenues decreased as higher monthly mobile fees could only partly offset the decrease in airtime revenues and lower customer roaming revenues due to the stepwise abolition of retail roaming in the EU".
Si.mobil's total costs and expenses increased by 9.3% year-on-year, mainly driven by higher costs such as for equipment due to a shift towards higher value handsets.
|
H1'17 |
H1'16 |
% change |
Total revenues |
106.4 |
104.0 |
2.4 |
EBITDA |
22.3 |
26.6 |
-16.1 |
EBIT |
6.9 |
11.7 |
-41.3 |
Capital expenditures |
26.3 |
11.1 |
136.4 |
Si.mobil competes with Slovenia's largest cellphone operator, Mobitel, a unit of state-owned Telekom Slovenije, T-2, Debitel, Izi Mobil, and Tusmobil.
Besides Si.mobil, the wireless operations of Telekom Austria Group include Velcom in Belarus, Mobilkom Austria, Bulgaria's Mobiltel, Croatia’s Vipnet, Serbia's Vip Mobile and Macedonia's Vip Operator.
($=0.858941 euro)