TMCnet News
Vipnet EBIT falls 54.5% to EUR 5.9mn in Q1 [IntelliNews - Weekly Reports](IntelliNews - Weekly Reports Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Telekom Austria said on May 8 the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of its Croatian unit Vipnet dropped 54.5% y/y to EUR 5.9mn in the first quarter of 2014. Vipnet's EBITDA fell 22.5% y/y to EUR 22.7mn in January-March 2014. Its revenues declined 9.6% y/y to EUR 83.2mn in the period under review. The number of mobile subscribers declined 3.8% y/y to 1.807mn in the first quarter of the year. The company's market share shrank to 37% at end-March from 37.8% a year earlier. The growth in the contract business was not able to make up for the shrinking prepaid customer base. On the fixed-line segment, Vipnet had 202,100 access lines and 115,900 broadband lines, up by an annual 17.4% and 24%, respectively. Vipnet's results were negatively influenced by the macro-economic pressures in Croatia, and by the overall decline in telecoms service prices, as well as by a decrease in roaming and interconnection tariffs following Croatia's EU accession. The revenues from the latter are expected to continue sliding after the European Parliament voted in April to ban roaming charges for using a mobile phone in another EU country as of December 15, 2015. On the Croatian market, Vipnet competes with T-HT (51%-owned by Deutsche Telekom) and Tele2 - the local arm of Swedish telecom company Tele2. (c) 2014 Emerging Markets Direct Media Holdings LLC Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company |