Rostelecom’s IFRS net profit halves to 2.4 bln rbl in Oct–Dec

MOSCOW, Mar 12 (PRIME) -- The net profit of Russian state-controlled telecom operator Rostelecom decreased to 2.351 billion rubles in October–December 2018 from 4.169 billion rubles in the same period of 2017, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the company said on Tuesday in a statement.

Revenue rose 4% to 87.257 billion rubles. Operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) grew 2% to 26.038 billion rubles. The OIBDA margin lost 0.7 percentage points to 29.8%.

Operating income shrank 12% to 8.167 billion rubles. Capital expenditures increased 48% to 27.287 billion rubles.

The net debt widened 3% to 186.712 billion rubles. Free cash flow rose to 18.063 billion rubles from 17.283 billion rubles a year earlier.

For the full 2018 year, the net profit increased 7% to 15.012 billion rubles. Revenue rose 5% to 320.239 billion rubles.

OIBDA added 4% to 100.9 billion rubles, and the OIBDA margin lost 0.2 percentage points to 31.5%.

Operating income contracted 6% to 35.800 billion rubles. Capital expenditures increased 20% to 73.179 billion rubles. Free cash flow decreased to 14.751 billion rubles from 20.385 billion rubles in 2017.

President Mikhail Oseyevsky said, “2018 was a milestone year for Rostelecom. We started to implement our 2022 strategy, with a strong focus on improving our products and services ecosystem, enhancing efficiency, the further modernization of our technological platform, and of course, the development of our team.”

He also said, “Our growing digital segment gained further momentum, which now contributes more than 55% to our total revenue. Growth in our subscriber base coupled with higher ARPU, led to a significant increase in revenues from our core pay TV and broadband segments, where we are leaders in the market.”

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Sergei Anokhin said the 2018 results underpinned the company’s outlook and potential to grow in the digital segment.

“We expect our performance to continue to improve across all key financial indicators and we are therefore setting ourselves the following targets for 2019: revenue and OIBDA growth of at least 2.5%, and CAPEX in the range of 65–70 billion rubles, taking into account 7 billion rubles of regulatory CAPEX and excluding the implementation of government programs,” he said.

(66.0763 rubles – U.S. $1)

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