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Russia's mobile major VimpelCom IFRS net profit up by 28% y/y. [IntelliNews - Weekly Reports](IntelliNews - Weekly Reports Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Net IFRS profit of one of Russia's three largest mobile operators VimpelCom went up by 28% y/y to USD 408mn in Q1, short of Reuter's analyst survey expectations of USD 421.4mn. Company's revenues remained flat at USD 5.59bn (USD 5.65bn expectations), which was attributed to 72% cut of MTR tariffs in Italy. In Russia, which accounts for over 40% of VimpelCom's revenues, revenues went up by 4% y/y, while revenues from mobile data transfer increased by 30% y/y. In Italy, VimpelCom's second largest market, revenues declined by 8% y/y, while mobile internet revenues went up by 29% y/y. Company's EBITDA inched up by 2% y/y to USD 2.35bn at a margin of 42% vs. 41.1% for the same quarter of last year (USD 2.36bn and 41.8% expectations), with EBITDA negatively influenced by currency rates in Q1/13. Number of subscribers of VimpelCom went up by 4% to 215mn people, also due to Uzbekistan from which another major Russian operator MTS recently withdrew. Net debt as of end of Q1/13 went up by 4% ytd to USD 22.9bn. Net IFRS profit of VimpelCom jumped four-fold y/y to USD 2.14bn in 2012. In Q4/12 alone net profit stood at USD 801mn vs. net loss of USD 381mn in Q4/11, beating the expectations of USD 450mn-USD 470mn (Reuters and gazeta.ru analyst surveys). Profit jump in Q4/12 was attributed to USD 606mn revaluation of Russia's largest mobile phone retail chain Euroset, which is owned on parity conditions by VimpelCom and another operator MegaFon. In 2012 revenues went down by 1.8% y/y to USD 23bn, EBITDA went up by 2.6% y/y to USD 9.77bn at a margin of 42.4% vs. 40.6% in 2011. Vimpelcom previously reported plans to pay USD 2bn in dividends for 2012, including a special dividend from converting shares of its major shareholder Altimo. Supervisory council of the company approved paying special dividends of USD 0.79 per share (total of USD 1.4bn) and USD 0.35 per share in dividends for 2012 (USD 615mn total). Last week Altimo was supposed to increase its stake in Vimpelcom from 56.2% to 52.7% as a result of converting preferred stock, voting shares remaining at 47.9%. As reported in fall 2012, in one of the longest corporate conflicts in Russia, Russian Altimo (a telecom arm of Russian Alfa Group of tycoon Mikhail Friedman) took an upper hand over Norwegian Telenor in controlling VimpelCom. Altimo announced increasing its stake in VimpelCom to 47.9% (vs. Telenor's 43%), by acquiring a 6% stake held by Ukrainian businessman Viktor Pinchuk for USD 217mn. The conflict between Altimo and Telenor escalated in 2011, when Telenor protested Vimpelcom's deal with Egyptian holding Weather Investments. (c) 2013 Emerging Markets Direct Media Holdings LLC Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |