Connex H1 revenues up 21% in dollars

MobiFon, the leading GSM mobile telephony operator in Romania in terms of customer base and owner of the Connex brand, ended the second quarter with $127.1 million in service revenues, up 23% from April-June 2002, when total revenues amounted to $103 million.

It added 73,400 net subscribers in the second quarter for a total of 2,746,100, compared to 2,337,000 subscribers at the end of the same 2002 period, an increase of 17%. The prepaid/postpaid mix at the end of June 2003 was of 64/36.

Ted Lattimore, MobiFon’s chief operating officer recently said in an interview for Ziarul Financiar that the company would end 2003 with approximately $500 million in revenues and 3-3.2 million customers.

Although the number of net subscribers added was not spectacular, the turnover growth is explained by the increase in the monthly average revenue per user (ARPU). ARPU for the second quarter reached $14.44 compared to $13.27 in the first quarter and $14.12 for the same period of last year.

EBITDA increased 28% to $71.4 million compared to $55.9 million for the same period last year. Operating income rose 30% to $45.9 million compared to $35.2 million for the second quarter of 2002.

For the first six months, service revenues increased 21% to $240.2 million, compared to $198.9 million for the same period last year. EBITDA increased 26% to $137.2 million compared to $108.5 million for the 2002 period. MobiFon’s operating income rose 22% to $81.7 million from the $67.1 million for the first six months of 2002.

MobiFon distributed approximately $59.1 million in dividends to its shareholders on April 23, 2003. ClearWave (MobiFon’s majority shareholder) got about $33.5 million of this amount. ClearWave is controlled by Canadian communications company Telesystem International Wireless (TIW). The latest data released by TIW show ClearWave to hold 57.7% in MobiFon.

Another significant MobiFon shareholder is UK’s Vodafone – some 20%. MobiFon’s debts amounted to $283.7 million on June 30, 2003. TIW officials estimate MobiFon to have accounted for 49% of the mobile telephony market in late June. Its market share was of 53% on December 31, 2002, while service revenues were worth $425.6 million, EBITDA amounted to $231.5 million and operating income stood at $144.6 million. iuliana.susanu@zf.ro