More than 500,000 new subscribers in 2008 for Romtelecom’ services of broadband and satellite TV

OTE, the main shareholder of Romtelecom, announced today the financial results for 2008, according to the IFRS standards.

In 2008 Romtelecom continued the implementation of the growth strategy defined in 2007.

On the one hand, we continued the efforts for consolidating the company’s position on the market by keeping under control the churn rate for fixed telephony and by rapidly increasing the number of customers for broadband and satellite digital TV services. From a total number of subscriptions (revenue generating units) for fixed telephony, broadband and TV services of 3,785,000 at the end of 2007 (out of which 3,035,000 for fixed telephony, 360,000 for Clicknet and 390,000 for Dolce), Romtelecom registered at the end of 2008 a total number of 4,271,739 subscriptions (out of which 2,978,739 for fixed telephony, 650,000 for Clicknet and 643,000 for Dolce), a year on year increase of 13%. 

Therefore, while the churn rate was substantially decreased from 11% in 2007 to 2% in 2008, the growth of the number of customers for Clicknet (81%) and Dolce (65%) in 2008 compared to 2007 continued to be significant. This is the result of the attractive offers Romtelecom brought last year on the market, from bundles of voice and broadband, to bundles including hardware, software or IT support, and also to the redefined subscriptions portfolio bringing better prices for mobile and international calls to its customers.

On the other hand, the company’s transformation and efficiency increase program was taken further. Through this program, as part of the Customer 1st strategy launched in 2007, Romtelecom aims at meeting even better the customers’ expectations, by offering quality services at competitive prices following the decrease of the costs’ base.  

 The revenues of the company remained stable (869.8 million euro in 2008 compared to 871.9 million euro in 2007). The attractive offers launched on the market to increase the customers’ base generated a slight EBITDA reduction from 300.6 million euro in 2007 to 291.6 million euro in 2008. After subtracting the costs generated by the program for increasing efficiency (which included also a personnel reduction from 12,512 at the end of December 2007 to 10,344 at the end of December 2008) in total amount of 38 million euro, the final EBITDA was reduced to 253.6 million euro.

„The results which we obtained in 2008 both in the area of strengthening Romtelecom’s position on a very competitive market, as well as in the area of increasing the operational efficiency constitute a solid base in order for us to be able to meet the challenges of the year 2009 in the new economic context in Romania,” declared Yorgos Ioannidis, CEO Romtelecom.