February 23 (SeeNews) - Telekom Slovenije [LJE:TLSG] said on Thursday its consolidated net profit dropped to 39.9 million euro ($42.1 million) in 2016 from 68.6 million euro a year earlier due to the one-off effect of the exclusion of Macedonian unit One from the group's financial results in 2015.
The company exceeded its planned consolidated net profit by 16% last year, it said in a Ljubljana bourse filing.
The group's net sales revenues dropped 4% to 701.7 million euro through December, while its EBITDA fell 3% on the year to 199.3 million euro.
"A comparison of revenues in 2015 excluding One indicates that the net revenues generated during 2016 were 5.7 million euro or 1% higher than those generated in 2015", Telekom noted.
In 2015, Telekom Slovenije merged One with Telekom Austria’s Vip Operator, getting a 45% share in the newly established company. One’s results were also included in the Group’s fully consolidated results until 31 July 2015.
The group's total mobile subscriptions dropped 2% during 2016 to 1,769,385 at end-December, while total fixed-line connections fell 3% to 558,233. In line with the drop in subscriber numbers, revenues fell by 10% to 265.9 million euro in the mobile segment of the end-user market and by 4% to 229.3 million euro in the fixed-line segment.
In Slovenia alone, mobile subscriptions fell 6% during 2016 to 1,111,631 at end-December.
The group's broadband connections increased 6% during the review period to 346,238, driven mainly by a 15% jump in connections in Kosovo, while on the domestic market they edged up 2%.
Telekom Slovenije Group invested 147.7 million euro in its units last year, 23% more than in 2015. A total of 130.8 million euro was invested by Telekom Slovenije, with the main part allocated for the modernisation and development of broadband optic fibre networks and the fourth-generation networks. Similar investments are also planned for 2017, the company said.
The group employed 3,665 people at end 2016, down 4% on the year.
($=0.947077 euro)