Connex shareholders to get nearly $139m as dividends

Mobile telephony turns out to be a profitable business once again. MobiFon, the operator of the mobile telephony network Connex will disburse approximately 138.77 million dollars in dividends for 2003, which is more than one quarter of the total revenues the operator derived last year.

MobiFon concluded the year with total revenues of 529.5 million dollars, 24.2 percent higher compared with the 425.6 million dollars it had made in 2002. The company registered an operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) of 281.2 million dollars, 21.4 percent higher than in 2002. At the same time, the operating income progressed by 18.1 percent last year to 170.7 million dollars, up from the 144.6 million dollars in 2002.

The decisions enacted by the General Meeting of Shareholders at the end of March and published in the latest issue of the Official Gazette, show MobiFon will be disbursing dividends worth 4,607.14 billion ROL to its shareholders. MobiFon distributed dividends in two tranches last year: 59 million dollars in April and 35.7 million dollars in July.

The largest share of the said dividends for 2003 will go to MobiFon Holdings BV (Netherlands), which owns 63.54 percent of the share capital and in its turn is indirectly held by Canadian-based TIW (Telesystem International Wireless). The other significant shareholders of the company are Vodafone Europe BV – 20.1 percent and Deraso Holding BV – 14.4 percent, both of which are registered in the Netherlands.

Interests of less than one percent are held by a series of companies registered in Cyprus, such as Dargate Limited – 0.9 percent, Devaynes Holdings Limited – 0.53 percent, Upson Enterprises Limited – 0.28 percent and Emporiki Venture Capital Emerging Markets Limited – 0.26 percent.

MobiFon’s share capital amounts to 712.9 billion ROL, divided into shares with a par value of 3,750 ROL. The Connex network was totalling 3,457,042 subscribers at the end of last year.
iuliana.cerchez@zf.ro