April 24 (SeeNews) - Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor said on Tuesday the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of its Bulgarian unit rose to 299 million Norwegian crowns ($37.9 million/31.0 million euro) in the first quarter of the year, from 261 million crowns in the like period of 2017.
Telenor Bulgaria's revenue increased to 827 million crowns in January-March from 732 million crowns in the corresponding period of last year, Telenor said in an interim financial statement.
Last month, Telenor said it has agreed to sell its Central and Eastern European assets to Czech-based investment group PPF for 2.8 billion euro on an enterprise value basis. The deal includes Telenor's wholly-owned mobile operations in Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia and the technology service provider Telenor Common Operation. The transaction has not yet been completed.
Telenor Bulgaria's mobile revenue grew to 668 million crowns in the first three months of 2018 from 607 million crowns in the first quarter of 2017. The company's non-mobile revenue increased to 159 million crowns in the review period from 125 million crowns last year.
Telenor Bulgaria's operating profit rose to 152 million crowns in the first quarter of 2018 from 126 million crowns in the prior-year period.
The company's mobile subscribers decreased to 3.1 million at end-March from 3.3 million a year earlier.
Capital expenditure nearly doubled to 42 million crowns from 24 million crowns in the first quarter of last year.
Telenor bought Bulgarian mobile operator Globul from Greece's OTE for 717 million euro in 2013. In November 2014, Globul was rebranded to Telenor Bulgaria.
On the Bulgarian mobile segment, Telenor competes with Mtel, the local unit of Telekom Austria, Bulgarian telecommunications group BTC, which operates under the brand name Vivacom, as well as with 4G operator Max.
(1 euro = 9.62 Norwegian crowns)