LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), February 26 (SeeNews) – Telekom Slovenije [LJE:TLSG] said on Thursday its consolidated net profit dropped to 1.6 million euro ($1.8 million) in 2014 from 51.1 million euro a year earlier, citing the effects from one-off events.
In 2014, Telekom Slovenije Group faced harsher macroeconomic conditions in the markets where it operates, and lower revenue from mobile voice services because of customers switching to new mobile plans, the company said in a statement.
Consolidated revenues fell 3% to 756.5 million euro last year.
One-off events that affected Telekom Slovenije Group’s results in 2014 included 43.6 million euro in additional provisions that were set aside.
A sale process is currently underway - overseen by state holding firm SDH - for a 72.75% stake in Telekom Slovenije which operates as a fixed and/or mobile services provider in Slovenia, Kosovo, Macedonia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The telco, which has a market capitalization of 962 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.
The company's end-December mobile voice connections in Slovenia, a market of around 2.0 million, stood at 1,125,365, flat on the year, while its fixed voice connections fell 5% to 401,599.
Telekom Slovenije's mobile users in Southeast Europe (SEE), comprising the markets of Macedonia, Bosnia and Kosovo, rose 10% on the year to 1,186,660 at the end of 2014. Its fixed lines in the SEE region fell 25% on the year to 41,068.
The number of broadband connections in Slovenia stood at 199,542 at the end of December, down 1% on the year, while the same indicator for the rest of the SEE region was at 153,445, up 7%.
In December, SDH told SeeNews that interested investors had been asked to prepare their binding bids for the Telekom Slovenije stake that is on sale.
In January, international private equity firm Cinven confirmed for SeeNews its interest in Slovenia's incumbent telco. Local media have tipped Cinven alongside Deutsche Telekom as front-runners in the sale process.
In 2013, the Slovenian parliament endorsed government plans to sell state-owned stakes in 15 companies, including Telekom Slovenije.
($=0.8799 euro)