GLOBUL’S Q1’2012 REVENUES UP BY 0.3%, CUSTOMER BASE GROWING 10.8%

As indicated in OTE Group’s Q1’2012 financial results, in the first quarter of the year GLOBUL posted a 10.8% customer base growth, reaching almost 4.4 million, as well as a 0.3% total revenues increase, compared to the same period last year.  

Following the trends of the previous quarters, Q1’2012 has been quite challenging for the telecom sector, with domestic demand remaining subdued due to tight consumption and stagnating incomes. Fierce competition has led to continuous erosion of the retail prices mainly in the corporate segment and the market has approached saturation with estimated penetration of above 150%. Nevertheless, total revenues for Q1’2012 reached EUR 96.7m, or 0.3% above Q1’2011, a result of growth in both service revenues and handset sales.

GLOBUL service revenues increased nearly 1% in Q1’2012, as the decline caused by the fierce competition in the business postpaid segment was fully compensated from the increased fix and mobile data revenues.

Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) for Q1’2012 decreased by 9.7% compared to Q1’2011, while the EBITDA margin is 3.8 pp lower than prior year.

GLOBUL’s postpaid customer base further increased, reaching 2.7 million customers,  up 15.5% than in Q1’2011, thus representing over 61% of total base. Despite the continuing trend for prepaid customers’ migration to postpaid through innovative offers, GLOBUL also managed to increase the prepaid customer base by 4.2% in the quarter.

GLOBUL’s fixed line services continued their strong growth in Q1’2012, with a subscriber base of over 200,000 customers. Mobile data services also recorded a significant increase vs. Q1’2011, as the subscriber base almost tripled.

Average usage per customer continued to grow with blended AMOU for Q1’2012 at 153 min., or almost 4% above Q1’2011, while blended ARPU for Q1’2012 has reached BGN 13.60, or 8.8% lower than the same period prior year.

Summary Financial Results for GLOBUL & Germanos for the 3 months ended March 31, 2012 & 2011.*

*Total figures are after COSMOTE intragroup eliminations.