LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), May 13 (SeeNews) – Telekom Slovenije [LJE:TLSG] said on Wednesday its consolidated net profit fell 41% on the year to 7.2 million euro ($8.1 million) in the first quarter of 2015.
Consolidated revenues dropped 6% on the year to 182 million euro through March, primarily due to lower revenues from fixed and mobile services on the end-user market and the effect of lower call termination prices on the wholesale market, the telco, which operates as a fixed and mobile services provider in Slovenia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia, said in a statement.
Telekom Slovenije said lower revenues from services outside subscriber packages with included quantities, and declining prices of call termination in network interconnection are driving down revenues in the mobile segment. On the fixed segment, the group faces stiff competition on the broadband connection market and more affordable packages aimed at maintaining the level of users.
The company's end-March mobile voice connections in Slovenia, a market of around 2.0 million, stood at 1,112,064, down 1% on the year, while its fixed voice connections fell by the same margin to 396,000.
Telekom Slovenije's mobile users in Southeast Europe (SEE), comprising the markets of Macedonia, Bosnia and Kosovo, fell 3% on the year to 1,149,700 at the end of March. Its fixed lines in the SEE region rose 42% on the year to 58,400.
The number of broadband connections in Slovenia stood at 199,214 at the end of March, down 1% on the year, while the same indicator for the rest of the SEE region was at 154,471, up 1%.
The telco, which has a market capitalization of 705.8 million euro, affirmed its consolidated net profit target of 66 million euro for 2015. The group also plans to post earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of 198 million euro this year while earmarking 107 million euro for investments.
In 2013, Telekom Slovenije was placed on a list of 15 state firms earmarked for privatization. Slovenian state holding company SDH is currently coordinating the sale process for a 72.75% stake in the incumbent telco which has attracted a single binding bid, placed by international private equity firm Cinven.
Telekom Slovenije was trading up 4.63% at 113 euro by 1020 CET on the Ljubljana bourse on Wednesday.
($=0.8891 euro)