November 10 (SeeNews) - The Romanian unit of British wireless giant Vodafone said on Tuesday its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the six months to September 30 fell 22.6% on the year to 223 million euro ($334 million) on revenue decline.
Vodafone Romania total revenue reached 486 million euro, down 20.9% on the year, the difficult economic environment and the challenging market conditions, the unit said in a statement.
Service revenue went down by 19.5% to 472 million euro. The average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) was 8.7 euro, it added.
"Our financial results reflect the direct impact of the Romanian economy challenges and the tight competition on the Romanian mobile communications market. The lower purchasing power of consumers, caused by the devaluation of the local currency, has led to a general drop of the consumption, in this market,” Vodafone Romania CEO Liliana Solomon said in the same statement.
She added that the company will continue to focus on cost control and operational efficiency.
The company's customer base rose to 9.535 million clients at the end of September, up 0.2% on the year. Postpaid subscribers accounted for 38.4% and prepaid for 61.6% of Vodafone Romania’s total subscriber base at the end of September, which represented a 1.7% increase in the postpaid ratio as compared to the same period last year, the company said.
Company's main rival in the country of 21.5 million is Orange Romania with 10.69 million clients at the end of September. The Romanian unit of Greek Cosmote had 6.6 million clients at the end of September.
($ =0.6668 euro)
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