Romtelecom, the biggest fixed telephony operator on the domestic market, posted losses worth 21.1 million euros last year, alongside revenues that fell 2.6% to 871.9 million euros - following the decline in the number of subscribers and the influence of a set of "external factors", company officials say.
In 2006, Romtelecom posted net profit worth 55.2 million euros and revenues worth 894.8 million euros.
"Last year's losses are related to the number of fixed-line customers that the company lost. The losses caused by customers that left the fixed-line network stood at 34-35 million euros, whilst the impact of the offers launched by the company, such as free network call minutes, was limited," stated Yorgos Ioannidis, CEO of Romtelecom.
The number of fixed-line customers fell by 10.8% to 3,035,000 from 3,403,346. However, in the fourth quarter, Romtelecom registered the first net increase of the last three years in the number of fixed line clients.
"Growth on other segments, such as Internet access services, corporate data services or satellite TV could not compensate for the speed at which we lost fixed-line clients," added Catalin Dima, legal and relations executive manager of Romtelecom. He explained that, besides the loss caused by the decline in the number of fixed-line clients, Romtelecom's losses were also generated by other factors, such as last year's exchange rate fluctuations, which had a negative impact of at least 30 million euros.
"The appreciation of the RON only had a 14 million-euro effect on the salary fund and a 16 million-euro effect on amortisation expenses. The impact of RON appreciation was greater, however it is hard to calculate the exact level," Dima said.
The increase in Romtelecom's contribution to Cosmote's losses, which increased to 34.5 million euros from 27.7 million euros, was another factor that con
