Cosmote, Romtelecom Reach 2008 Targets

Cosmina CapalĂu

Greek-based OTE Group on Friday released the financial results of Romanian subsidiaries Cosmote (mobile telephony) and Romtelecom (fixed telephony, Internet and TV) for 2008. Cosmote Romania CEO Stefanos Theocharopoulos signed a press release announcing that the company had managed to "triple the market share from 2006" and secure revenues of 311 million EUR and EBITDA of 22.5 million EUR. In turn, Cosmote Romania CFO Konstantinos Apostolou added that the company had reached "the main financial target set for 2008."

According to the Cosmote Romania management, the company secured over 2.2 million new users in 2008, up by 44% from the previous years, to a total of 1.1 million subscribers and 4.78 million pre-paid users. Plans for 2009 include the expansion of the user base and innovation on all business segments - pre-paid, post-paid and corporate.

As for fixed telephony company Romtelecom, majority shareholder OTE reported revenues of 869.8 million EUR and EBITDA of 291.6 million EUR, slightly down from the 300.6 million EUR reported in 2007. According to the press release, the EBITDA after the subtraction of the 38 million EUR optimization programme is 253.6 million EUR.

Romtelecom concluded last year with 4.27 million subscriptions (of which 2.98 million for fixed telephony, 650,000 for Internet service and 643,000 for TV service), up by 13% from the previous year. "The results we achieved in 2008, both in terms of consolidating Romtelecom"s position on a highly competitive market, and in terms of increasing the operational efficiency, are a solid foundation for facing the challenges of 2009 in the new economic context in Romania," said Romtelecom CEO Yorgos Ioannidis.