February 23 (SeeNews) - Croatia's biggest telecommunications operator, Hrvatski Telekom [ZSE:HT-R-A], said on Thursday its consolidated net profit rose 1% to 934 million kuna ($132.5 million/125.6 million euro) in 2016.
Total consolidated revenues edged up 0.7% to 6.97 billion kuna in the twelve months through December, Hrvatski Telekom said in a filing to the Zagreb bourse.
"HT has maintained its leading position in all segments of the telecommunications market, the main contributors being mobile and wholesale revenues, growth in the ICT segment, and the electricity business", the company noted.
Mobile revenue rose 3.3% to 2.8 billion kuna last year, miscellaneous revenue increased by 101.1% to 112 million kuna and system solution revenue grew by 2.7% to 677 million kuna. Fixed-line revenue dropped by 3.3% to 3.4 billion kuna.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before exceptional items, edged up 1.4% to 2.8 billion kuna with a margin of 40.5%.
HT's capital investments grew 9.1% to 1.61 billion kuna in 2016 and were focused on increasing the broadband Internet access capacity, customer experience improvement, and boosting competitiveness.
The number of the company's mobile subscribers edged up 0.1% to 2.23 million, with postpaid customers increasing by 3.6% to 1.16 million as a result of overall push of successful and attractive tariffs and handsets as well as Mobile Net offers, the company said.
Fixed-line customers decreased 4.6% to 924,000 last year due to the market trend of fixed to mobile and IP substitution, regulation and enforced competition. The number of broadband subscribers increased 2.4% to 618,000.
The group’s TV customers, including IPTV, DTH and cable TV, increased 4.4% to 401,000 at end-2016.
Hrvatski Telekom is 51%-owned by Deutsche Telekom.
In early January 2017, Hrvatski Telekom acquired a 76.53% stake in Crnogorski Telekom. "This transaction is part of the HT's growth strategy through expansion into regional markets. With this acquisition, HT expects to generate additional value for its shareholders and customers through substantial synergy effects", it said.
The company noted that it will focus on its strategy of growth in 2017 as a leader on the national and regional telecommunications and digital services market.
(1 euro=7.43613 Croatian kuna)