PJSC Ukrtelecom whose 92.79% stake belongs to LLC ESU, which is controlled by Rinat Akhmetov’s System Capital Management (SCM), will not pay dividends for 2017. “It was decided that the profit the company generated last year will be used to cover losses accumulated over previous periods,” Ukrtelecom’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, shareholders re-elected the supervisory board together with its head, Leonid Netudykhata, who once headed the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, was Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, and worked as Chairman of Ukrtelecom’s Board of Directors in 1997-2000.
“The shareholders confirmed the top managers’ course towards further modernization of the company and an increase in the share of revenue from new IP services,” the press service said.
As reported, PJSC Ukrtelecom completed 2017 with a net profit of UAH 867 million, which was 44.3% more than in 2016. The operator’s net income over the year increased by 1.7%, to UAH 6.654 billion.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 4.9%, to UAH 1.867 million, EBITDA margin rose by 1.8 percentage points, to 28.1%. The company’s capital investment decreased by 0.7%, to UAH 948 million.
The leading supplier of telecomm and IT solutions ZTE has opened a long-term credit line to public joint-stock company Ukrtelecom to finance projects, foreseeing the provision of $10 million at the first phase, the public joint-stock company has said in a press release. “In the current conditions, we see a great interest of global business in the national infrastructure ICT [Information and Communication Technology] operator. This is a line which will be used for projects with a payback period of no more than five years,” the press service said, citing Uktelecom’s Director Yuriy Kurmaz as saying.
According to the company, the funds raised will be used to expand the coverage of Internet access in settlements, upgrade the access network and other elements of the company’s infrastructure.
The funds will be available from June 2018. During this time, the company’s specialists will prepare a roadmap and project calculations that are planned to be implemented in this cooperation, the press service said.
“We are starting a new stage of long-term cooperation between ZTE and Ukrtelecom. From now on it will not only be in the sphere of supply of equipment for consumers, but also at the level of important infrastructural solutions necessary for the development of the Ukrtelecom network,” said Director of ZTE Ukraine LLC Mingxi Huang said.
