Partner Communications net profit rises 13.9% (Israel)

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 13.9% year-on-year increase in net profit at ILS337 million (USD91 million) has been reported by Israeli mobile network operator Partner Communications in the financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2010. Significant improvement in profitability parameters has been attributed as the reason behind the good performance.

A turnover of ILS1.587 billion for the three-month period has been generated by the telco which is up 12.4% against 1Q 2009 while EBITDA of the company reached ILS619 million, a 12.1% y-o-y rise. Partner has expressed its criticism against Ministry of Communications’ (MoC’s) decision to reduce mobile termination rates, announced earlier this month.

According to the company, the proposed legislation was out of line with previous Ministry policies as well as worldwide common practices and it might have a material adverse impact on its earnings and it intend to take all the necessary measures to mitigate it, inter alia, by reviewing the cost structure and generating additional revenues from the fixed line business.