Artan P쳮aska
apernaska@tiranatimes.com
But Extends Share Control
Operating Income Falls 17% year to year
Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC), the Albanian branch of the Greek mobile telephony operator Cosmote, filed a 16.8% annual drop in operating income in the first-quarter of the current year (2009), to 19.3 million Euros, or nearly 25.7 million US dollars (USD). The results were reported on Thursday (7th of May) by the Greek telecoms group OTE, sole owner of Cosmote (mobile telephony), which in turn controls AMC.
Almost a fortnight earlier, during the visit of the Greek Prime Minister in Albania, the Greek wireless operator Cosmote stated on Monday, the 27th of April, that it had raised its stake in the Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC) company to 97.6%.
The Greek company completed the purchase of a 12.6% stake in its Albanian branch AMC at a cost of 48.2 million Euros, representing nearly 64.05 million US dollars (USD). With the sale of these stakes, the Albanian state figures as completely retired from ownership of the mobile company.
Nine years ago, in 2000, Cosmote had bought the first lump of 85% of AMC shares from the Albanian government at the cost of 85.6 million USD. The same year, the Albanian government distributed shares equivalent to 2.4% to AMC employees.
Earlier reports have forwarded that AMC raised its operating income by 18.6% to 100.3 million Euros last year. The number of AMC subscribers reached 1.4 million at the end of 2008, up by 16.8% on the year, in a country of over 3 million inhabitants.
AMC competes in the Albanian market with Vodafone Albania and Eagle Mobile. Recently, Post Telekom of Kosov련PTK) a fourth operator and a new competitor has been admitted in the Albanian mobile telephony market.
AMC’s EBITDA margin fall
AMC’s mother company, the Greek Cosmote reported on Thursday (7th of May) 518,000 new subscriptions in the first quarter of 2009, the largest number in any quarter over the last three years, raising its total customer base to 8.4 million, up 29 % compared with the same period in 2008. Besides homeland Greece and neighboring Albania, Cosmote is also present in Bulgaria and Romania.
The mobile telephony operator declared its market share rose to 43 %. Cosmote supports its income rose 4.4 % to 443 million Euros, although EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) fell 6.8 % in the first three months of 2009.
It is reported that in homeland Greece, Cosmote declared their EBITDA margin fell by 4.5 percentage points to 36.9 % in the first quarter of 2009, while in Albania, AMC’s EBITDA margin fell by 2.4 percentage points to 62.1 %. Bulgaria’s Globul EBITDA experienced a rise while reports on Romania are ambiguously worded.
AMC and Cosmote results on OTE
Greece’s largest telecoms company OTE, the mother company of Cosmote, filed a 5.4 percent drop in the first-quarter of 2009 sales on Thursday (7th of May), forwarding as an explanation price competition and a sluggish economy at home and in the Balkans.
“OTE’s results were weak due to lower revenues from fixed and mobile operations in Greece, Albania and Romania. Given the pressure on sales, we are focusing on the EBITDA margin in the next quarters and synergies with Deutsche Telekom,” commented analyst Vangelis Karanikas at HSBC Securities in Athens.
The reports do not allow assessments of whether the buy-off of the state shares of AMC, at the end of April, affected in any way the declining results of AMC or Cosmote or whether they will do so in the future. As supported by the mother company Cosmote, income rose to 4.4 % as “Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization” (EBITDA) fell 6.8 %.
Last year, Deutsche Telekom bought a 25 % stake in OTE in order to expand its footprint in southeast Europe, as OTE, via Cosmote, boasts presence in Albania, Bulgaria and Romania.
