Ioannidis: The situation of Greece will not harm Romtelecom

The difficult economic period Greece is going through will not hurt OTE and implicitly Romtelecom, a company 54% owned by the Greek group, maintains Yorgos Ioannidis, general manager of the operator. The Romanian telecom market will stabilise this year, and Romtelecom’s revenues are expected to rise. “We have cash and we’ll make further investments just like during previous years. As regards revenues, we expect a better performance than last year,” Ioannidis added. Whilst Greece’s 12.7% budgetary deficit will not be felt in the Greek operator’s business, Romania’s 7.2% one made an impact on Romtelecom’s 2009 revenues, with the company posting a 7% decline, to 808m euros, amid a 20% smaller telecom market. Yet, 2010 will not come with a similar decline, but rather with stabilisation. For this year, cost optimisation seems to best describe Romtelecom’s strategy. The company plans investments to expand optical fibre infrastructure nationwide, and it also intends to launch a new store concept.