March 30 (SeeNews) - Mobile operator Yettel Bulgaria has increased its net profit to 91 million euro ($99.3 million) last year from 71 million euro in 2021, Netherlands-based parent company PPF Telecom Group said on Thursday.
Total revenue at Yettel Bulgaria, which is wholly-owned by the telecommunications arm of privately-held Czech PPF Group, rose to 456 million euro in 2022 from 427 million euro a year earlier, mostly driven by a rise in mobile services, PPF Telecom Group said in an annual financial report.
Yettel Bulgaria's mobile subscriber numbers inched up 0.1% reaching some 3.45 million. Mobile services contributed to the bulk of the company's revenue, or 320 million euro, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 8.8%. In addition, the company more than doubled its fixed broadband customer base in 2022 to some 42,000 users.
Yettel was the top mobile operator out of three active in Bulgaria, slicing a 37% share of revenue in the local mobile market in the first nine months of 2022, according to an investor presentation.
In March 2022, PPF Telecom Group completed the rebranding of its commercial businesses in Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia to Yettel. The group also has a controlling 70% stake in Cetin Bulgaria, which it created in July 2020 after spinning off the active and passive mobile infrastructure assets from Yettel Bulgaria. The remaining 30% stake was sold in 2022 to Roanoke Investment, an affiliate of Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Cetin Bulgaria, a wholesale provider of fixed and mobile telecoms infrastructure to Yettel Bulgaria, increased its net profit by an annual 13% to 43 million euro last year. Revenue at Cetin Bulgaria amounted to 124 million euro compared to 113 million euro in 2021.
Operating expenses edged up to 299 million euro from 294 million euro at Yettel Bulgaria, while Cetin Bulgaria booked a 40% annual rise in operating expenses to 49 million euro.
In 2021, the Bulgarian mobile operator spent 28.4 million euro to renew and acquire licences for several frequency bands including in the in the 3.6 GHz spectrum, which is used for the development of 5G wireless networks. In March, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld an earlier court ruling that the tender procedure organised by the communications regulator for the spectrum allocation was incorrect. The ruling was rendered after a complaint by MAC, a group of small fixed operators. The court is due to render a ruling on the second litigation procedure initiated by MAC, PPF Telecom Group added.
Yettel Bulgaria is looking to take part in 2023 in a tender for the allocation of the 700 MHz and 800 MHz bands of the 5G spectrum, with the government deciding this week to reduce one-off licence fees by 40%.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, PPF Group also operates the Yettel brand in Serbia.
($ = 0.9159 euro)