Slovak Telekom nine months’ sale down by 4% (Slovakia)
Slovak Telekom has reported revenues for the first nine months of this year of US$994.9 million, down by 4% year-on-year, trailing the decline to significant reductions in the prices of some services due to regulation, as well as an overall decrease in prices for telecoms services in the Slovakian market.
EBITDA reached US$443.50 million in January-September 2010, down by 8.9% y-o-y. Consolidated net profit fell by 12.4% y-o-y to US$152.23 million.
The company’s fixed network revenues in the first three quarters of the year rose 4% y-o-y to US$488.87 million, as declining traditional PSTN voice revenues were offset primarily by increasing revenues in internet and IT services. Fixed division EBITDA was down 2% to US$190.15 million.
C&W Communications result disheartens investors
Shares in Cable & Wireless Communications fell 13% after the telecommunications provider said declining tourist numbers in the Caribbean, its biggest market, had hit pre-tax profits.
The company’s sales increased 2.7% to US$1.16 billion, while its pre-tax profit declined by 4% to US$210 million. Earnings per share also declined to 3.3 cents facing a loss of 10.8%.
According to Tony Rice, chief executive, the company’s expectations for the full year remained unchanged, but the outlook was mixed for its divisions. The market situation varies from region to region and CWC’s first-half performance demonstrates the defensive and cash generative qualities of the group.
Mr Rice added that the Macao arm had been boosted by a 20% rise in visitors attracted by the casinos in the former Portuguese colony and the country’s double-digit economic growth. However, there was not much respite in the Caribbean, where the group makes about two-fifths of its sales. The company also reported a decline in revenues in Panama, another key market.
The company was created seven months ago after Cable and Wireless demerged to create C&W Communications and C&W Worldwide, which serves corporate and public sector customers. Analysts said C&W Communication’s results raised concerns about future cash flows of the company, which operates consumer telecoms businesses in 38 countries.
According to Steve Malcom at Evolution Securities, the most obvious issue for C&W Communications is that it generated negligible cash in the period and it has a very large dividend commitment. The gap between its cash flow and $210 million commitment raises significant doubts over its ability to maintain the dividend over the long term. The Panamanian business was particularly disappointing, reporting a 4% revenue miss and 7% EBITDA miss. Most damningly, C&W Communications generated just $16 million of cash flow in the period compared with their $59 million forecast.
Meditel Q3 Net Income rises 91% (Morocco)
Medi Telecom SA, Morocco’s second- largest mobile-phone operator has revealed its quarter results. The company’s net income increased by 91% to US$33.6 million, thanks to added customers’ base.
According to the company, its revenue increased by 11% to US$522.60 million. It did not provide any comparative figures for the same period last year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization climbed 9% to US$201.57 million and Meditel’s customer base increased by 10% to 10.1 million.
France Telecom SA bought a 40% stake in Meditel for US$899 million in September.
Portugal Tel 3Q Net Profit Soars On Vivo; To Pay Extra Dividend
Portugal Telecom SGPS SA (PT) Wednesday said third-quarter net profit soared almost fifty-fold to EUR5.35 billion, bolstered by the proceeds from the sale of its stake in Brazilian mobile company Vivo Participacoes SA (VIV), and announced an extraordinary EUR1.65-a-share dividend.
PT, Portugal’s biggest telecommunications company by market capitalization, said it plans to pay an ordinary dividend of EUR0.65 per share on this year’s earnings, in addition to the extraordinary dividend, and another EUR0.65-a-share dividend on next year’s earnings, as Vivo’s proceeds boosts its coffers. Last year, third-quarter net profit stood at EUR116.1 million.
PT sold its stake in Vivo in September for EUR7.5 billion and used roughly half of the funds to buy a stake in Brazilian telecommunications company Oi (TMAR5.BR).
Third-quarter operating revenue rose 0.7% to EUR952.2 million, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, dropped 4.1% to EUR381.9 million.
PT, like other European telecommunication companies, is facing stagnant revenue in its home market as customers scale back on spending and migrates to low-cost operators. Portugal, along with many of its peers in Southern Europe, has been hit especially hard by lower consumer spending that has forced companies to cut tariffs.
Telenor Q3 revenues beats street expectations (India, Norway)
Norwegian telecom major Telenor posted a nearly 6% jump in September quarter revenue helped primarily by a strong showing in India, even as its global profits nosedived.
According to the company it added four million new customers in India in three months ended September and raked in revenue of US$31.72 million. Revenues from India in local more than doubled from last quarter due to higher subscription base and increased ARPU.
However, Telenor’s global profits dropped by 51% to US$273.17 million in the quarter under review, in comparison to a profit of US$515.85 million on a revenue of US$3.37 billion in the year-ago period.
According to Telenor President and CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas, the group delivered another strong quarter and its consolidated operations added seven million new mobile subscriptions during this period. He is pleased to see promising development for Uninor in India this quarter with strong growth in subscriptions and increased average revenue per user. Going forward, the company will continue its efforts to increase revenues and improve business processes.
In India, Telenor is present through a joint venture with Unitech called ‘Uninor’, in which the company holds a 67.25% stake.
According to Uninor MD Sigve Brekke, he is encouraged by the performance in the September quarter. Company’s dynamic pricing plan that offers up to 60% on calls is attracting customers to try service and increasingly uses (Uninor) as their primary SIM.
Uninor’s total subscriptions touched 7.9 million in the three months ended September. However, Telenor’s total revenue growth was impacted by reduced international roaming fees, lower growth in handset revenues and increased competitive pressure.
In the September quarter, EBITDA declined by US$250.51 million compared to last year due to the negative contribution from Uninor, which was partly offset by the improved performance of Telenor’s established Asian operations.
Telenor noted that it expects Uninor will contribute with an EBITDA loss of around US$665.06 million and capital expenditure in the range of US$222-296 million.
France Telecom profits up 1.9% in Q3
France Telecom, Europe’s third-largest telecom operator by revenue revealed its third quarter results. The profit rose 1.9 percent in third-quarter, determined by its expansion into Africa and the Middle East and beating analysts’ estimates.
The company also squeezed its prediction for 2010 revenue, claiming that they would be slightly up on a comparable basis with 2009, whereas before it expected them to be largely flat. The company posted third-quarter revenue of US$16.06 billion and EBITDA of US$5.58 billion.
According to Chief Financial Officer, Gervais Pellissier, the company has revived the commercial performance in France.
As per reports, analysts had expected revenue of US$15.72 billion and EBITDA of US$5.73 billion.
According to Pellissier, company’s third quarter allows them to be a bit more optimistic for the full year. France is improving, Spain too, emerging markets grew a bit faster, and the enterprise division didn’t suffer as much as France Telecom thought.
Grameen phone revenues up 17% in Q3 (Bangladesh)
Grameen phone, Bangladesh’s top mobile phone operator revealed its quarter results. The company saw an increase of 17% in revenue to US$273 million and also added 5.4 million new users so far this year. Grameen phone is 55.8% owned by Norway’s Telenor.
According to the company, revenue growth was mainly in voice as well as interconnection due to subscription increases. Data revenue also increased by 68% compared to last year. The company did not give a figure for adjusted core earnings but revealed that EBITDA was down 50% in the first nine months of the year because it had reduced its retail prices in the amount of 5.25 billion taka to absorb the government’s SIM card tax.
Net profit for the first nine months of 2010 was US$0.109 billion compared to US$0.092 billion the previous year.
According to Grameen phone Chief Executive Oddvar Hesjedal, the SIM tax had hindered the digitalization of the mobile industry in Bangladesh, which had also hit companies’ profitability. However, the company’s strategy of lowering connection fees for new customers was paying off in revenue growth.
Grameen phone, which raised US$70 million in an initial public offering (IPO) last year that was the impoverished country’s biggest ever, invested 4.46 billion taka during the first nine months in 2010 to improve network quality and enhance data capacity.
DTAC revenue up 13.2%, says MNP will launch by December end
DTAC, Thailand’s second largest cellco by users, has revealed its quarter results. The company’s subscriber base reached increased to 20.9 million at the end of September 2010, compared to 296,000 in three months. The company recorded 6,000 post-paid net additions in Q3 for a total of 2.312 million and its pre-paid base increasing by a net 290,000 taking it to a total of 18.623 million.
The company revealed its third-quarter net profit increased 87.7% to US$102.2 million on higher revenues from telephony services up to US$587.87 million from US$353.64 million a year earlier and smartphone handset sales which enlarged to US$21.43 million compare to last year
Total turnover boosted to 614.32 million in the three months to the end of September, up 13.2% from the previous year. Quarterly EBITDA raised 38.1% y-o-y to US$234.34 million.
DTAC also announced that implementation of a Mobile Number Portability (MNP) system is in the final stage and the service is expected to be launched by year-end 2010. All of Thailand’s mobile operators have been subject to daily fines from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) since failing to meet the Thai regulator’s end-August deadline for launching MNP.
