Greek telecoms group OTE has announced its results for the quarter ended 30 June 2016, reporting ‘resilient’ total revenues of EUR954.7 million (USD1.066 billion), up 0.1% year-on-year, driven by a solid increase in domestic fixed line revenues. Pro forma EBITDA – which excludes the impact of voluntary retirement programmes and restructuring plans – saw a 2.4% drop from EUR318.4 million to EUR310.9 million, mainly due to losses in the group’s Romanian unit, where pro forma EBITDA dropped 24.5% from EUR49.0 million in Q2 2015 to EUR37.0 million in the period under review. Fixed line revenues from OTE’s Greek unit amounted to EUR389.5 million, up 4.1% from EUR374.2 million in the same period one year earlier, while Telekom Romania saw a 0.7% decline in fixed revenues, from EUR150.5 million to EUR149.5 million. Income from mobile operations fell 3.9% in Greece, from EUR303.1 million to EUR291.2 million, though increased in Romania and Albania, up 4.9% (to EUR110.1 million) and 16.2% (to EUR20.1 million), respectively.
Operationally, in its domestic unit OTE (Cosmote) ended the quarter with 1,575,383 active retail broadband subscribers, up 10.3% from 1,428,560 in the corresponding year-ago period, while mobile subscriptions reached 7,610,022, up 3.0% from 7,386,271. PSTN connections amounted to 2,091,833 at 30 June 2016, falling 11.7% y-o-y from 2,369,831.
Michael Tsamaz, OTE chairman and CEO, commented: ‘… early investments in the services that our customers prefer enabled us once again this quarter to deliver a strong performance in Greece, despite economic challenges and obstacles to consumer spending … In Romania, an intense competitive environment is hindering the recovery of our operations, but we are confident that our initiatives will pay off.’