Russia, Turkey boost TeliaSonera’s profits

Stockholm-based telecoms group TeliaSonera has reported that its consolidated net profit in the quarter ended 30 June 2008 rose by 7.8% year-on-year to SEK4.13 billion (USD685 million), from SEK3.83 billion a year earlier, on total revenues that climbed 5.7% on an annual basis to SEK25.27 billion. EBITDA in the second quarter (excluding one-off items) increased by 6.1% to SEK7.98 billion, widening the EBITDA margin slightly to 31.6% from 31.4% in Q2 2007. TeliaSonera’s growth in the most recent quarter was heavily driven by mobile operations in Russia, Turkey and its Eurasia division. The Swedish former wireline monopoly’s CEO Lars Nyberg said that reducing expenses is imperative to the company’s strategy going forward to offset the slowdown in its domestic growth and a general decline in fixed line services. Since Mr Nyberg took up his post in September 2007, the group has announced 2,900 job cuts. He added in a statement: ‘The overall market trends were essentially unchanged and we reported a satisfactory set of numbers for the second quarter…For the first time in more than a year, we managed to increase our margins.’