Connex reports $226m operating income

Mobile telephone operator MobiFon, the owner of the Connex trademark, has reported an operating income for last year of 226 million dollars (182 million euros at the 2004 average exchange rate) and service revenues of 686.3 million dollars (553.5 million euros).

At the same time, Ted Lattimore, MobiFon’s president and chief operating officer, confirmed the launch by Connex of commercial 3G telephony services for this year.

“2005 started better than we expected and we are confident this year will bring excellent results,” Lattimore told Ziarul Financiar. “We will continue investments and expansion of the GSM and data networks and will launch 3G UMTS services, a first time for the Romanian market,” he said.

Connex officials were unwilling to name an exact date for the launch of these services.

Operating income for 2004 rose by 32.4% and service revenues by 29.6%.

Operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) increased by 22.7% to 344.9 million dollars (278.1 million euros). The company did not reveal its net income figures, however. Data from the Finance Ministry’s website show their net income for 2003 was 4,607bn ROL (122 million euros at the average exchange rate for that year).

About one month ago, the operator announced it had added over 540,000 net subscribers in the fourth quarter of last year, reaching a total of 4.91 million subscribers, compared with 3.45 million at the end of 2003.

Connex estimates it had a 48% share of the mobile telephone market in Romania at the end of last year. MobiFon’s majority shareholder, Canadian firm TIW, estimates mobile telephone market penetration in Romania to have increased to 47% from 33% at the end of 2003.

The results announced benefited from the increase in the number of subscribers. Net subscriber growth, which was 76.8% higher than in 2003, also resulted in “strong service revenues growth,” according to the Connex president and COO.

“With more than 1.4 million new customers, 2004 represents the best year ever for the company in net subscribers additions, reflecting the strong growth of the Romanian market,” Lattimore said.

Although the number of subscribers did increase, this was offset by the decrease in average revenue per user (ARPU) to 12.96 dollars (10.4 euros) per month from 14.35 dollars (12.6 euros) in 2003.

Prepaid subscribers accounted for 65% of the total at the end of 2004, compared with 63.9% the year before.
mihai.musatoiu@zf.ro