March 2 (SeeNews) - The pro forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Telekom Romania Mobile, formerly known as Cosmote, fell by an annual 6.2% to 81.7 million euro ($86 million) in 2016, its parent company, Greece's OTE, said on Thursday.
Telekom Romania Mobile's pro forma EBITDA margin fell to 17.9% from 19.9% in 2016, OTE said in its 2016 financial statement.
The company's total revenues were up 4.2%, reaching 457.1 million euro in 2016.
Total operating expenses, excluding depreciation, amortisation, impairments and charges related to voluntary retirement programmes and restructuring costs decreased 5.2%, mainly reflecting savings in indirect expenses.
Telekom Romania Mobile’s total customer base shrank 7.1% year-on-year, falling to 5.3 million last year, of which 30.5% was postpaid. The number of business customers grew by an annual 6.3% compared to end-2015, mainly reflecting savings in indirect expenses.
"In 2016, we continued to focus on our key-objectives: growth on MagentaONE convergent segment and TV services, as well as offering attractive mobile services. Wholesale segment positively contributed to the results. In terms of high-end network coverage, our customers benefit from increased coverage of 4G services of 97.43% in urban population," Telekom Romania operations CEO Miroslav Majoros said.
In the fourth quarter alone, Telekom Romania Mobile's pro forma EBITDA was up 1.7% to 17.7 million euro, while revenues increased by 0.7% to 121.9 million euro, due to effective management of costs, the company said.
Blended average revenue per user (ARPU) decreased by 2.8% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Deutsche Telekom is present in Romania through its 40% shareholding in OTE. OTE's units in Romania - fixed-line operator RomTelecom and mobile operator Cosmote - were rebranded as Telekom Communications Romania and Telekom Mobile Romania, respectively, in September 2014.
In February, local media reported that Deutsche Telekom is considering the sale of its fixed-line and mobile operations in Romania in two separate deals, with France's Orange being one of the possible buyers.
According to unnamed market sources, Orange would be interested in acquiring the fixed-line business of Telekom in Romania, while telecommunications group RCS&RDS will be interested in the mobile portfolio, Romanian M&A portal mirsanu.ro reported.
($= 0.9496 euro)