Dow Jones Newswires reports that Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC), the Polish wireless network operator, saw revenue fall by half a percent in the six months ended 30 June 2009, reflecting improved performance in the second quarter from the previous quarter as the company managed to attract new clients. The Warsaw-based company said its revenue was up 4.5% in the second quarter to PLN1.96 billion (USD681 million) compared to the first quarter. First-half revenue dropped only 0.5% year-on-year to PLN3.83 billion despite heavy price pressure, due to a 4.5% net growth of the subscriber base and the low churn rate. ‘Despite the drop of interconnect rates, the economic downturn and the strong depreciation of the zloty, in the second quarter PTC kept its revenues at the budgeted level,’ the company said.
PTC’s 2Q earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 3.8% from the same period a year earlier to PLN758 million, while EBITDA margin rose 1.8 percentage points year-on-year to 38.7% at end-June. Average revenue per user was PLN47 in the second quarter. At end-June, the company had 13.41 million subscribers, up 4.5% from the same period a year earlier, including 6.477 million post-paid users.