New Orange CEO expects market surge

The increasing penetration rate of mobile telephone use nationwide will be one of the factors fuelling the growth of Orange Romania, while data traffic services will secure a constantly high average revenue per user (ARPU), explained Richard Moat, the new CEO of the Orange Romania, in his first public speech since taking over management of the company.

Moat was appointed to this position in September as a replacement for Bernard Moscheni, who took over at Belgian operator Mobistar, also owned by the Orange group.

The new CEO estimated that by the end of the year mobile telephone penetration in Romania would reach 46%, before increasing further to 55% by the end of 2005. By 2006, Orange estimates the rate will exceed 60%, which translates into more than 13 million users.

Orange Romania’s results have exceeded expectations this year, with the branch ranking third in the group in terms of number of users (4.371 million by the end of September) and fifth in terms of revenues (549 million dollars after the first nine months of 2004). EBITDA amounted to 296 million dollars, while revenues are set to reach 772 million dollars this year, up 46% from 2003.

Orange has invested 865 million dollars in Romania since entering the market; and this amount is set to exceed 900 million dollars by the end of the year.

Next year, Orange aims to attract new customers and to promote traffic and data services, Internet access and Multimedia via mobile phone. Its EDGE service, which offers high-speed Internet access, will be expanded to cover 70% of the country, and the customer relations department will relocate to a new building in the Pipera area in August of next year.
dan.dragomir@zf.ro