Resilient performance in challenging economy; EBITDA* margin protected by tight cost controls, continuing strong growth in ADSL and IPTV; proposed dividend of HRK 34.05 per share
16.2.2010
T-Hrvatski Telekom (Reuters: THTC.L, HT.ZA; Bloomberg: THTC LI, HTRA CZ), Croatia’s leading telecommunications provider, announces audited results for the year ended 31 December 2009.
Group Highlights
• Revenue down 3.1% despite estimated 5% decline in GDP;
• EBITDA* down 3.8%, margin of 45.3% largely protected through tight cost controls;
• Net profit down 12.4% to HRK 2,023 million, mainly because of higher redundancy costs and lower financial income
• Operating cash flow remains strong at HRK 2,738 million
• Proposed HRK 34.05 per share dividend up 13.5%, (2008: HRK 29.99 ) reflecting strong cash position and positive one-off effect of T-Mobile merger on HT d.d. distributable earnings
• Successful corporate reorganisation into Business and Residential units, effective 1 January 2010
T-Mobile
• Subscribers up 6.3% to 2.86 million
• Strong growth in post-paid subscriber base , up 13.5% to nearly 920,000 (32.2% of subscribers)
• Pre-paid subscribers up 3.2%
• Revenue down 5.0% as recession and imposed taxes take effect
T-Com
• Strong growth in internet revenue, up 27.7% to HRK 1,149 million
• ADSL subscribers up 17.4% to nearly 555,000
• IPTV subscribers up 74.1% to nearly 236,000
* before exceptional items
Ivica Mudrinić, President of the Management Board and CEO, said:
”This has been a very challenging year for Croatia but having anticipated the pressures that the recession would impose on our business, we began the year with the priority of protecting revenues and margins. I am pleased to say that our strategy has worked and we have delivered a resilient set of results that reflect the high-quality services and tight cost controls with which we have tackled the recession. Furthermore, I believe our results demonstrate the importance of T-HT’s services to the Croatian economy. We successfully reorganised the Group so that we can serve our customers even more effectively and I believe we are in good shape to prosper when the economy begins to recover.”