October 27 (SeeNews) - Telekom Slovenije [LJE:TLSG] said on Thursday its consolidated net profit plummeted to 23.5 million euro ($25.6 million) in the first nine months of 2016 from 72.5 million euro a year earlier due to the one-off effect of the exclusion of its Macedonian unit One from the group's financial results in 2015.
The group's revenues dropped 5% to 522.5 million euro through September, the company indicated in a bourse filing. Its consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by the same margin to 157.1 million euro in January-September.
The key financial indicators of the Telekom Slovenije Group are not directly comparable to the results in the same period last year, since One was included in consolidation until July 31, 2015. "A comparison of revenues in the first nine months of 2015 excluding One indicates that the net revenues generated over the first nine months of 2016 were 5.1 million euro or 1% higher," Telekom Slovenije said.
Compared to September 30 last year, the Telekom Slovenije Group increased the number of users, as the number of mobile users grew 2.4%, the number of fixed broadband connections rose 5.6%, and the number of TV connections was up 6.9%.
Revenues in the mobile segment of the end-user market fell by 11% on the year to 198.6 million euro and were down by 2% to 172.6 million euro in the fixed-line segment.
In the first nine months, Telekom Slovenije invested 93.1 million euro in its units, 34% more than in the same period last year. The telco plans to invest a total of 156 million euro by the end of the year.
It also plans to achieve a net profit of 34 million euro and EBITDA of 198 million euro for 2016.
In 2015, Telekom Slovenije merged ONE with Telekom Austria’s Vip Operator, getting a 45% share in the newly established company. The group has operations also in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
($=0.9164 euro)