July 28 (SeeNews) - Croatia's biggest telecoms operator, Hrvatski Telekom [ZSE:HT-R-A], said on Thursday its first-half consolidated net profit after minority interests increased 2.7% on the year to 417 million kuna ($61.9 million/55.7 million euro) on the back of lower amortisation costs and non-recurring items and higher EBITDA, partly offset by lower financial income and higher costs and taxes.
The company's consolidated revenues rose by an annual 3% to 3.4 billion kuna in January-June, driven by higher revenues from mobile services, it said in a statement.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) before exceptional items, edged up 1.4% to 1.34 billion kuna with a margin of 39.3%.
HT's capital investments grew 10% on the year to 645 million kuna in the first half and were directed towards the development of both fixed and mobile networks, but in particular on increasing the capacity of the company's broadband internet service.
The company's mobile subscribers edged up 0.2% on the year to 2.2 million at the end of June, with prepaid subscribers decreasing 1.5% to 1.1 million amid tough competition and a general drop in the prepaid market.
Fixed-line customers dropped 6.7% on the year to 945,000 due to the market trend of fixed to mobile and IP substitution, regulation and strong competition. The number of broadband subscribers edged up 0.1% to 607,000.
The group’s TV customers, including IPTV, DTH and cable TV, increased 1.1% on the year to 391,000 at end-June.
Hrvatski Telekom is 51%-owned by Deutsche Telekom.
(1 euro=7.48239 kuna)