Telekom Austria Group saw its revenues grow by 7.7% year-on-year to €2.536 billion for the first six months of this year, driven by continued growth of international mobile revenues and the consolidation of Belarusian mobile operator Velcom.
Telecompaper reported that At the same time, the EBITDA increased by 2.7% to €967.7 million, as a result of growth in the international operations and the consolidation of Velcom which more than offset a lower contribution from the fixed segment.
The EBITDA includes exceptional costs of €19.7 million. Telekom Austria Group's operating income declined 4.9% to €389.9 million due to higher depreciation and amortization charges, and the net profit dropped 18.6% to €226.0 million due to higher interest expenses mainly as a result of the acquisition of Velcom.
The mobile subscriber base grew by 52.5% year-on-year to 16.5 million on 30 June, due to the inclusion of Velcom and the launch of Vip mobile in Serbia and Vip operator in Macedonia during the fourth quarter of 2007.
The number of fixed line customers in Austria (PSTN/ISDN) decreased by 6.9% year-on-year to 2.367 million on 30 June, and the number of broadband customers grew by 14.1% during the same period to 826,400, including 757,500 retail customers.