Globul Reports More Customers, Lower Profits in 2011 Q1

Globul, the second-largest Bulgarian mobile phone operator, has reported a rise in the number of its customers simultaneously with a decline in revenues.

"Following the trend of 2010, the first quarter of 2011 has been equally challenging for the market and the telecom industry, with countinuously adverse macroeconomic conditions and low consumer expenditure. Fierce competition has led to continuous erosion of the retail prices in the corporate segment while mobile penetration has exceeded 140%," the company said in a statement Friday.

Globul's postpaid customer base increased by almost 8% from the first quarter of 2010, reaching a total of 2.3 million, or 58.6% of its total customer base.

The migration of prepaid customers to postpaid through innovative offers has continued, though less intensively than in the beginning of 2010, leading to a decrease in the prepaid customer base, the telecom says. As a result, Globul's total customer base at the end of Q1 2011 exceeded 3.9 million, over 2% higher than in 2010.

Globul's fixed line services continued their growth in Q1 2011, with the subscriber base exceeding 150,000 customers. Mobile data services also recorded a significant increase vs. Q1 2010, with the subscribers' base posting a growth of over 40%.

The company's service revenues declined by 8.4% in the first three months of 2011 year-on-year, "mainly due to lower interconnection rates, macroeconomic factors and intense competition in the business postpaid segment."

Despite the challenging business environment, Globul and its mobile phone retailer Germanos managed to reduce their cost base by over 5.6% compared to the first quarter of 2010.

Thus, in the first quarter of 2011 Globul's total revenues amounted to EUR 96.4 M, down 7.3% from EUR 104 M a year earlier; its total profit before taxes was EUR 37.3 M, down 9.9% from EUR 41.4 M in the first quarter of 2010.

Globul is the trademark under which Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile EAD offers mobile telecommunications services in Bulgaria. The company is 100% owned by COSMOTE (member of OTE Group).

As of the end of March, 2011, GLOBUL has over 3.9 million subscribers, while its services are available to 99.98% of Bulgaria's population, covering over 99.25% of the country's territory.

Globul along with Germanos employ more than 2 400 people in the country. Cosmote Group at the end of March 2011 has approximately 20 million customers in SE Europe.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!