July 19 (SeeNews) - Telenor Bulgaria, part of Norwegian-based telecommunications group Telenor, said on Tuesday its first-half earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) edged up 1.7% on the year to 121 million levs ($68.5 million/61.9 million euro).
The company's total revenues rose 3.3% year-on-year to 317 million levs in January-June, while its EBITDA margin declined to 38.1% from 38.6%, it said in a statement.
For the second quarter alone, Telenor Bulgaria reported EBITDA of 62 million levs, flat year-on-year, on total revenues of 161 million levs, up 4.5% year-on-year. The EBITDA margin fell to 38.5% from 40.3% in the second quarter of 2015.
"EBITDA in local currency remained stable while the EBITDA margin decreased by 2 percentage points mainly due to increased handset sales and a positive one time effect in 2015 related to bad debt provisions," Telenor Group said in its quarterly report.
The number of Telenor's subscribers declined by 21,000 during the second quarter to 3.5 million at end-June as the number of SIM cards in the market continued to decrease and Telenor’s focus on value led to a reduction in low ARPU segments. The subscription base narrowed by 7% compared to end-June 2015.
Capital expenditure of 18 million levs during the second quarter, down 14% year-on-year, was mainly related to network and 4G expansion. During the quarter 53 sites were rolled out and the 4G population
coverage reached 76%.
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 local 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=1.95583 levs)