Telecom Argentina Q3 net profit rises 47%
Telecom Argentina SA, one of the country’s largest phone companies has unveiled its Q3 results. The company’s net profit increased 47% on the year.
According to the Chief Executive Franco Bertone, net profit was US$112 million, up from US$76.62 million during the third quarter of 2009. Sales for the quarter rose 21% to US$960.92 million. The company’s earnings for the first nine months of the year increased 30% to US$328.73 million, and sales for the same period increased 18% to US$2.65 billion.
Telecom Argentina is the major local telephone company for the northern part of Argentina, including the whole of the city of Buenos Aires. Telecom Argentina’s local telephone market, together with Telefonica de Argentina in the southern part of the country, was part of a duopoly until October 8, 1999. Telecom also operates mobile phone service Personal and Internet service provider Arnet.
Tel Italia to Buy Argentine Sofora Stake
Telecom Italia is planning to take over Telecom Argentina, Argentina’s second largest fixed-line phone company.
With the acquisition, the Rome-based company will also take control of Telecom Argentina, in which Sofora has a controlling stake. Telecom Italia will not pay cash for the acquisition, instead it will give up call option it had over Sofora’s stake.
Telecom Italia presently owns 50% of Sofora, with the rest held by the Argentine Werthein group.
According to a source, the Werthein group has agreed to give up 8% of its Sofora stake to Telecom Italia, and with this the Italian group will own 58% of the holding company.
With 58% of Sofora, Telecom Italia should be able to merge Telecom Argentina’s results in the Italian group’s accounts.
IRSA decides to bid for Telecom Argentina stake
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: IRSA Inversiones Y Representaciones, Argentine investment firm has announced that it will be bidding for Telecom Italia’s 50% stake in Sofora, the holding company that controls Argentine fixed line incumbent Telecom Argentina.
The amount offered has not been revealed by IRSA but it cleared that the agreement includes an option to buy the other half of Sofora, which is currently owned by Argentina conglomerate Grupo Werthein.
It was after Argentina’s antitrust agency ruling in August 2009 that the stake violated antitrust legislation that TI decided to sell its shareholding in Sofora. Telefonica acquired a 24.7% stake in the Italian firm through the Telco consortium in October 2007.
Telecom Argentina net profit rises 17%
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 17% rise in the first quarter profit of ¬Telecom Argentina has been posted, increasing to P$411 million (US$105 million). The revenue of the telco went up by 15% to P$3.25 billion (US$832 million) and the subscribers base increased by 12% to reach 16.8 million.
Personal, the mobile subsidiary of the company almost reached 15 million subscribers in Argentina while 473 thousand subscribers were incorporated during the first quarters of 2010. 70% of the total subscriber base is prepaid while 30% is postpaid.
Service revenues reached P$1,875 million with 34% corresponding to VAS revenues and Average Monthly Revenue per User (ARPU) increased to approximately P$41 during first quarter.
Telecom Argentina net profit rises 46%
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 15 percent year-on-year rise in the revenues has been reported by Telecom Argentina generating ARS 12.26 billion in 2009. With 46 percent rise in the net income for the period reached ARS 1.4 billion. The mobile revenues of the company rose 16 percent to ARS 8.06 billion while the fixed-line revenues increased 14 percent to ARS 4.1 billion.
17% improvement in OIBDA has also been noticed which reached ARS 3.9 billion. 1.9 million new customers has been gained by the company in the year 2009 for a total of 14.5 million and out of total, 69 percent are prepaid and 31 percent are postpaid.
Company’s Paraguay unit, Nucleo had 1.8 million customers at the end of the period, down 1 percent from a year earlier. 2 percent increase in the number of lines of the fixed division has been showed which reached up to 4.36 million and the number of ADSL customers rose 17 percent year-on-year to 1.2 million users at end-December.
With 1% rise, ARPU for fixed customers reached ARS 40 in 2009.
Argentina seeking to renationalize telecom sector
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 42.3% stake in Telco, a holding company that owns 24.5% of Telecom Italia had been acquired by Spain’s Telefonica in April 2007. However, the merger garnered the attention of Argentine anti-trust authorities since approximately 90% of the local telecommunications market was now controlled by Telecom Argentina and Telefonica de Argentina.
Telefonica of Spain’s stake in Telecom Argentina is diluted in numerous intermediary holdings and is thus equivalent to around 2%. Spain’s Telefonica and Telecom Italia’s merger has also been making rounds recently but both the companies have been denying the rumors.
Telecom Italia was ordered by Argentina’s Anti-Trust Commission (CNDC) in August 2009 setting a 12-month deadline for the sale.
TI shortlists three bidders for its Argentina unit
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Three potential buyers have been narrowed down by Telecom Italia (TI) for its 50% stake in Sofora, the holding company that controls fixed line incumbent Telecom Argentina. All the three buyers are local companies whose offers ranging from USD580 million to USD630 million.
Argentina Airports 2000, a consortium led by Eduardo Eurnekian and Henry Gutierrez; property development firm IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones and local investor Alfredo Roman have been identified as the potential buyers.
Earlier this month, issued by the country’s antitrust agency, the National Commission for the Defense of Competition (CNDC) has been revoked by a court in Argentina in which TI was ordered to sell its 50% shareholding in Sofora.
Telecom Argentina antitrust case halted by Argentina court
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Antitrust Commission ruling that Spain’s Telefonica SA’s ownership stake in Telecom Italia SpA violated the country’s competition laws has been thrown out by an Argentine court which in turn ruled that the CNDC, doesn’t have the right to order Telecom Italia to sell its shares in Telecom Argentina.
According to the decision, a federal court for the defense of competition must be formed to rule on the issue and it also feels that it’s truly a legal scandal that the law, passed in September 1999, that is over ten years ago, has not been complied with because of a delay from the executive power.
Telecom Italia’s nationalization not on cards- Argentina govt
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Argentina government has made it clear that there are no plans to nationalize Telecom Argentina SA but will do whatever is necessary to force agreement with an antitrust commission order to end a monopoly in the local telecommunication sector.
According to Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez, the goal was never to nationalize Telecom, but to make sure that Telefonica complies with the order to sell the stake that it has to sell, like in any part of the world when there’s a monopoly.
Telecom Italia SPA has been ordered by Argentina’s antitrust commission, the CNDC, to sell its stake in Telecom Argentina, saying the local telecommunications market became a monopoly after Spain’s Telefonica SA bought a minority stake in Telecom Italia. On the contrary, Telecom Italia fought hard against the order and obtained a lower court ruling suspending the August 25 deadline of CNDC to sell the stake.
Later, European telecommunications lobby group ETNO urged the European Commission to intervene in the dispute and currently, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also investigating the forced sale.
Telecom Argentina’s license might be scrapped by Argentina Congress
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The operating license of telephone company Telecom Argentina might be scrapped by the Congress of the country if an antitrust dispute gets embroiled in the courts. The warning was issued by Argentina’s government which plans to appeal an injunction issued last week by an Argentine court, which suspended the timetable which the government set for some of the firm’s shareholders to sell their stakes.
The government also claims that after Spain’s Telefonica bought a stake in Telecom Italia, it created a kind of monopoly of the company on the telecom market. Telecom Italia had been given a deadline until August 25 last year to sell their stakes in Telecom Argentina. The government now will take a more active role in the sale process if there’s no news by February 25.
