Telekom Austria found Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) challenging in the third quarter despite encouraging performances in some markets.
In the fixed line sector, it ended September with 124,100 TV subscribers, up from 80,700 in the same period last year. Meanwhile, in Croatia, the corresponding figures were 187,200 and 163,400.
In Bulgaria, its subsidiary Mtel reported a mixed set of results in the forst nine months of the year. While both revenues and EBITDA comparable dropped by 5.2% to €261.9 million and by 10.8% to €101.2 million respectively, the company was able to achieve strong net customer additions, especially fixed sectors. Its performance should be further boosted in Q4 following the addition of the recently acquired cable operator blizoo to its results.
Meanwhile in Croatia, the downward trend slowly levelled off, with revenues declining by 2.7% to € 274.7 million in the period under review. The fixed line customer total was increased by the acquisition of the operator Amis.
Telekom Austria’s revenues fell by 1.2% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2015 to €2,950.4 million. It posted a net profit of €308.4 million as of the end of Q3.
Commenting on the results, Alejandro Plater, CEO Telekom Austria Group, said: “Our main task is to position Telekom Austria Group for sustainable growth by excelling in our core business and expanding our product portfolio while improving our operational efficiency. The net profit of over €300 million demonstrates that we are on the right track. However, due to the fierce competition on the market, there is still a lot to be done and our main focus is fully concentrated on our customers. We are, therefore, reinvesting our earnings in the market and in developing our infrastructure“,