KYIV. Aug 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kyivstar mobile operator saw a 34% rise in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in April-June 2016 year-over-year, to UAH 2.03 billion, the company said in a report on Thursday.
Revenue grew by 11%, to UAH 3.69 billion thanks to a rise of 14-15% in average revenue per user (ARPU), while the number of subscribers shrank by 2% year-over-year, to 25.4 million.
In H1 2016, Kyivstar increased EBITDA by 38%, to UAH 3.85 billion with growth of revenue by 12%, to UAH 7.16 billion.
Capital investment almost halved (by 49%), to UAH 975 million, including a fall of 38% in Q2 2016, to UAH 727 million.
Kyivstar said that increase of EBITDA margin to 54.9% is linked to a rise in revenue, reduction of expenses on interconnection and a fall in structural operating expenses.
“A rise in payments for frequency bands related to the 3G license, growth of utilities tariffs and rent rates and devaluation of the national currency affected operating expenses,” the company said.
Revenue from mobile data transfer grew by 79% compared to Q2 2015, to UAH 262 million with retaining the number of subscribers at 800,000. The growth is linked to the development of 3G network, the launch of attractive tariffs and active promotion of offers for smartphones.
The company said that it expanded 3G network coverage in Q2 2016 with 48% of Ukrainian residents now having access to it.
The number of mobile Internet users decreased by 5% in a year, to 10.3 million, while data traffic grew by 83%, to 283 megabytes.
Kyivstar said that competition on the Ukrainian telecommunications market is toughening, and the trend would grow.
