January 31 (SeeNews) - Telekom Austria said on Monday its Bulgarian unit Mobiltel’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped to 125.6 million euro ($135 million) in 2016 on higher expenditures.
A year earlier the company posted a reported EBITDA of 133.2 million euro. On a proforma basis - including effects of mergers and acquisitions - its 2015 EBITDA totalled 143.9 million euro. In September 2015, Telekom Austria finalised the acquisition of 100% of Bulgaria's second largest fixed-line services provider and cable operator Blizoo.
In the fourth quarter of 2016, Mobiltel’s EBITDA dropped to 25.2 million euro from a proforma EBITDA of 31.7 million euro in the like period a year earlier, the Austrian telco group said in a statement.
Mobiltel’s total revenues rose to 108.7 million euro in the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to 106 million euro in the corresponding period of 2015 reported on a proforma basis.
Mobiltel’s mobile subscribers fell by 3% year-on-year to 4.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Full-year revenues of Mobiltel, which operates under the Mtel brand, rose to 412 million euro in 2016. This compares to reported revenues of 375.8 million euro and revenues on a proforma basis of 411.7 million euro in 2015.
Revenues remained stable as the higher level of equipment revenues offset the decline in other operating income and wireless service revenues, the company noted.
“The increase in total costs and expenses was mainly driven by higher costs of equipment due to the increase in the number of handsets sold and higher average subsidies per handset,” Telekom Austria said in the statement.
Tangible capital expenditures decreased as a result of the lower level of IT investment.
Mobiltel's major competitors are Norway's Telenor and the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), operating under the brand name Vivacom.
($ = 0.9301 euro)