May 11 (SeeNews) - The pro forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Telekom Romania Mobile, formerly Cosmote, fell by an annual 14% to 15.7 million euro ($17.06 million) in the first quarter of 2016, its parent company, Greece's OTE, said on Thursday.
Pro forma EBITDA margin fell to 14.6% from 16.2% in the first quarter of 2016, OTE said in a financial statement.
"Working together with the Romanian fixed-line operations, Telekom Romania Mobile is taking steps to improve its performance, including enhanced 4G capabilities, refocused sales efforts, and cost optimization," it added.
The operator's total revenues were down 4.6% on the year to 107.8 million euro through March.
Total operating expenses, excluding depreciation, amortization, impairments, charges related to voluntary leave schemes, restructuring costs and non -recurring litigation costs were down 3.3% compared to the same period last year, mainly due to effective cost control of indirect costs and lower market invest.
Telekom Romania Mobile’s total customer base shrank by 11.2% on the year to 5.02 million at end-March, of which 32.3% was postpaid.
The total number of business customers grew by 2.5% compared to the first quarter of 2016, reflecting the company’s targeted offers for professional users and synergies with fixed-line operations.
Blended average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 0.3% to 4.7 euro in the three months through March.
Telekom Romania Mobile's EBITDA fell by an annual 6.2% to 81.7 million euro in 2016.
Deutsche Telekom is present in Romania through its 40% shareholding in OTE. OTE's units in Romania - fixed-line operator RomTelecom and mobile operator Cosmote - were rebranded as Telekom Communications Romania and Telekom Mobile Romania, respectively, in September 2014.
($ = 0.9200 euro)