Telecompaper

Russian mobile operator Megafon announced revenues of RUB 181.9 billion for 2009, up 3.7 percent. OIBDA dropped by 0.1 percent to RUB 88.2 billion, and the OIBDA margin fell to 48.5 percent from 50.5 percent in 2008. Net profit increased 2.2 percent to RUB 45.3 billion. The company generated RUB 33.5 billion in free cash flow last year, while capex rose 4.7 percent to RUB 52.5 billion. Fourth-quarter revenues were up 1.9 percent from the third quarter of 2009 to RUB 48.4 billion, while OIBDA dropped 2.0 percent over the same period to RUB 23.1 billion, and the OIBDA margin fell to 47.7 percent from 49.6. The net profit increased 21.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to RUB 13.8 billion. The active subscriber base totaled 50.74 million at the end of 2009, up 16.3 percent year-on-year. In its home market Russia, Megafon added over 2 million customers in the fourth quarter for a total 50.222 million at year-end. This helped boost its market share to an estimated 24.2 percent from 23.0 percent a year earlier. ARPU was down 3.1 percent from Q3 to RUB 316, while MOU rose 3.6 percent to 285. Voice traffic improved 9 percent from the previous quarter to 42.0 billion minutes, helped by a seasonal increase in business and activity and some improvement in the Russian economic situation. For 2010, Megafon will continue with the expansion of its retail network and 3G services. Data traffic increased by 3.3 times last year to 5,556 terabytes.