Vodafone Romania incomes drop by 21% and operational profit – by 25%

Vodafone Romania recorded total revenues worth of 921.5 million euros for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2010. This is a 21% drop against the previous fiscal year. The operational profit, before taxes, interests, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped 25%, down to 396 million euros, the mobile telecoms operator announced on Tuesday, May 18. Vodafone executive operator Liliana Solomon claims that the efficiency measures helped the drop in profit be only 3% when compared with revenues, which allowed for further significant investments.

„At the end of a very challenging year, when the entire economy felt the impact of the financial crisis, our revenues saw a 20% reduction in comparison with last year, following the downshifting trend of the Romanian telecoms industry. Nevertheless, the efficiency measures taken have made our operational profit, in connection with the revenues, to drop only three percentages, which enabled us to continue to make significant investments in Romania, by developing 3G services in 900Mhz band”, CEO Vodafone Romania Liliana Solomon declared.

The number of clients increased by 1%, while the adjusted operational profit halved

During the 2009-2010 fiscal year (April 1st 2009 – March 31st 2010), the operator gained 142,000 new clients to the 9,73 millions existing ones, namely 1% more than in the previous fiscal year. At he end of the fiscal year, the clients paying monthly represented 38% of the total clients’ database, while prepaid users made up 62%.

In contrast with the last 2009 quarter, services revenues dropped 10% and the number of clients increased by 67,000 by the end of Q1 2010. „The rate of revenue drop from one quarter to another has diminished, but, for now, we cannot talk about a market comeback”, Liliana Solomon added.

Vodafone group data indicate that the adjusted operational profit in Romania dropped to half in the fiscal year that has just ended: from 200 million pounds (in the fiscal year of 2008-2009) to 99 million euros at the end of March 2010.