Rostelecom ups Q4 IFRS revenue 2.6% to 81 bln rubles. OIBDA - 3.4%
MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - Rostelecom raised sales revenue to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 2.6% year-on-year in Q4 2015 to 81 billion rubles, the telco said in a statement.
OIBDA rose 3.4% to 25.8 billion rubles and the OIBDA margin grew to 31.9%, from 31.6% a year previously.
Rostelecom swung to net profit of 4.1 billion rubles, from 2 billion rubles losses a year previously. Losses from associates, chiefly Tele2, in which the company owns a 45% stake, were 1.3 billion rubles in Q4 and 3.6 billion rubles in FY 2015.
Rostelecom's results were better than those forecasts by analysts, the consensus among whom was revenue - 80.56 billion rubles, OIBDA - 25.14 billion rubles, net profit - 2.56 billion rubles and an OIBDA margin of 31.2%.
In FY 2015, revenue fell 0.5% to 297.4 billion rubles, OIBDA declined 1.6% to 100.8 billion rubles and the OIBDA margin fell to 33.9%, from 34.3% in 2014. Net profit grew 9.2% to 14.4 billion rubles.
Rostelecom's own guidance for the year was for revenue to fall 0.5-0.6% and an OIBDA margin of 33%-34%.
Free cash flow fell 18.6% in Q4 to 9.1 billion rubles. This fell to 22 billion rubles in FY 2015, from 27.3 billion rubles in 2014.
Capex increased by 17% to 62.7 billion rubles (21.1% of revenue) from 53.8 billion rubles (18.0% of revenue) in 2014; capex excluding the "Bridging the Digital Divide" project amounted to 59.5 billion rubles (20% of revenue). Capex in Q4 fell 10.1% year-on-year to 19.3 billion rubles or 23.9% of revenue, from 27.3% a year previously.
At the end of 2015, the group's total debt decreased by 2% and amounted to 186.6 billion rubles. More than 98% of the group's total debt was ruble-denominated as at December 31, 2015. As at December 31, 2015, the group's net debt amounted to 173.7 billion rubles with a net debt/OIBDA ratio of 1.7x. The company has 61.2 billion rubles in debt to repay this year.
Operating expenses grew 0.6% year-on-year in Q4 to 71.76 billion ruble. Staff costs fell 2.3% to 22.6 billion rubles. Interconnection expenses grew 22% to 15.4 billion rubles. The cost of inputs, maintenance and repair and utilities rose 7.8% to 7.7 billion rubles.