|
Poland's No.1 mobile operator
Poland's #1 mobile operator, PTC, sees ARPU further deteriorate in Q2, ups client count
Warsaw. (Interfax-Europe) - Poland's leading mobile operator Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC) saw its average revenue per user (ARPU) further deteriorate in the second quarter of 2004, as its client mix shifted on the blistering pace at which it added pre-paid customers, the company's CFO Jonathan Eastick said at a press conference.
PTC signed 1.4 mln new clients in the second quarter, mainly as an effect of the Heyah pre-paid brand launch, as 1.2 mln of the new clients were pre-paid users and only some 200,000 post-paid. PTC's client count totaled 7.5 mln at the end of June, up from 6.9 mln at the end of March.
The increase in the pre-paid client segment caused the overall performance indicators to fall year-on-year, despite stabilization or improvement in individual segments. The ARPU for both post-paid and pre-paid segments rose, as post-paid gained 6.8% to PLN 131.1 and pre-paid 2.2% to PLN 69.0. Overall ARPU fell by 11.2% to PLN 70.
The same story was repeated for the traffic performance indicators as overall minutes of use (MoU) fell by 7.5% year-on-year to 75.8 minutes, despite an 4.7% increase in the post-paid segment and a 1% year-on-year to 30.4 fall in pre-paid segment.
The success of Heyah and a strong growth of pre-paid clients certainly eased PTC's client acquisition cost (SAC) which sunk by 77.7% year-on-year to PLN 75 in the second quarter from PLN 336.7 in the second quarter of 2003. In the pre-paid segment the SAC fell to PLN 13.2 from PLN 61, as the Heyah brand is sold without a handset; in the post-paid segment the SAC fell to PLN 578.6 from PLN 751.3, as the company moved towards minimizing handset subsidies.
The performance indicators show, that despite the company's success in client acquisition, due to significant cuts in connection prices and a shift toward the pre-paid segment, the revenues could not keep up the pace with the growth of its client base. Thus the company grew revenue 15.3% year on year to PLN 1.61 bln.
On the other hand, sinking SAC drove the sales cost, which in turn drove the operating margins sky-high, as PTC can brag of a 47.9% EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortization) margin as EBITDA surged by 53.8% to PLN 771.6 mln.
The company's net profit for the second quarter rose by 186% year-on-year to PLN 346.8 mln.
(Source: http://www.interfax.com/com?item=Pol&pg=0&id=5747352&req=) |
|
