TIRANA, Feb.23 -AMC had a very successful Q4, as it captured some 64 percent of net additions during this period due to several new commercial initiatives stimulating subscriber growth, maintaining its market leadership. AMC subscriber additions were among the strongest in recent years, with c. 15,000 net contract and 74,000 net prepaid additions. In the fourth quarter and for the first time in Albania, AMC launched specific products and services targeting the business segment, while it changed both its pre and post paid tariffs. Despite the new tariffs, and increased subsequent marketing spending, EBITDA margin has been maintained at over 60 percent.
AMC’s revenues for 2006 were 9.7 percent higher than a year ago, reaching 151 million euro, resulting from a 26.7 percent increase in its subscriber base. AMC’s EBITDA grew by 10.2 percent compared to last year, while net income increased by 20.3 percent on the year, with the net income margin at 33 percent, compared to 30.1 percent a year ago.
During the twelve months of 2006, AMC contributed approximately 6 percent to consolidated revenues and 10 percent to Group EBITDA.
Subscribers reached a total of 990,279. In turn, blended Average minutes per user for the period reached 60 minutes, compared to 67 minutes a year ago, while blended Average revenue per user the same period stood at 15 euro.
AMC CEO, Mr. Stefanos Oktapodas, said: “The introduction of innovative products and our expanded mobile services portfolio have driven AMC ‘s considerable success during the past year, as demonstrated by its financial performance and subscriber growth. We sustain our market lead, committed to offering optimum customer experience and innovative services making people’s lives better and in turn maintaining our role as a valuable asset in the ever continuing growth of COSMOTE Group across SE Europe”.
COSMOTE Group
In 2006, COSMOTE has demonstrated that it can extract growth both in the developing South-East European markets as well as in the more mature operation in Greece, despite regulatory and competitive pressures. Key drivers have consistently been subscriber growth, as well as voice usage in all markets, led by successful commercial initiatives.
COSMOTE Group’s customer base has exceeded 11 million, a 35.4% increase from a year ago. The Group’s revenues for the year 2006 reached 2,382.3 million Euro, a 32.5% increase from 2005, while EBITDA reached a record 876.2 million Euro and the net income reached 360.5 million Euro. 2006 set the basis for COSMOTE Group future growth. The results show the potential created by the GERMANOS acquisition to drive the Group’s growth further, by continuing to expand the subscriber base, particularly at the high end contract segment in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and FYROM. Moreover, the margin improvement in Greece, continuing a trend of steady and sustainable improvements for several years, confirms the management conviction that there is room to further increase profitability. COSMOTE Group CEO, Evangelos Martigopoulos, commented:”2006 has been a crucial year for COSMOTE, with our aggressive expansion moves already paying off. These results are evidence that COSMOTE continues to deliver superior growth in all markets. COSMOTE has a well thought strategy, encompassing all aspects of our business: technology, competitiveness and distribution all coming together to deliver increased profitability and value. The results of this strategy are gradually and steadily materializing. The strategic acquisition of GERMANOS is expected to have a much greater impact in 2007, as it will accelerate the expansion of the customer base across the COSMOTE Group, as is already evident from Q4 results. In 2007, we have to face several challenges in all our markets but we are better than ever prepared to continue on our successful course, targeting one of the fastest growth rates in the European mobile industry. The records achieved in 2006 are a stepping stone in this direction and improving further every aspect of our performance is our commitment for the future.
