May 9 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian telecommunications group BTC said on Tuesday its profit more than tripled to 8.8 million levs ($4.9 million/4.5 million euro) in the first quarter, from 2.7 million levs in the corresponding period of 2016.
Total revenue edged down by 0.3% year-on-year to 211.1 million levs in the January-March period, BTC, operating under the brand name Vivacom, said in a filing to the London Stock Exchange.
Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) fell by 3.7% on the year to 77.2 million levs in the period under review.
BTC's revenue from mobile services rose 0.6% on the year to 120.7 million levs in the first three months of 2017, whereas fixed-line services generated a revenue of 86.7 million levs, up by 5% on a year-to-year basis.
Capital expenditures totalled 40.5 million levs in the first three months, which included 30.4 million levs related to network activities, mainly for investment in BTC's mobile radio access network (LTE and SRAN).
The number of mobile subscribers increased by an annual 2.6% to 3.09 million as of end-March, with the share of post-paid subscriptions up 1.9%, while pre-paid subscriptions decreased by 13.2%.
The company's 4G network which was launched in May 2016, covered 90.2% of the Bulgarian population at end-March.
On the mobile segment, BTC competes with the Bulgarian units of Norway's Telenor and Telekom Austria, as well as with 4G operator Max.
Bulgaria has a population of around 7.2 million.
BTC said in March it closed 2016 with a consolidated net loss of 19.6 million levs ($10.8 million/10 million euro), compared to a net profit of 16.5 million levs in 2015 mainly due to higher amortisation, depreciation and interconnect costs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)