Mobile phone retailer Svyaznoy boosts 2013 revenue 17%, EBITDA flat
MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax) - Svyaznoy boosted sales revenue 17% last year to 108 billion rubles, the mobile phone retailer's CFO, Alexei Gunin, told a press conference.
Earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were level with 2012 at 4.7 billion rubles.
Net debt was just over 9 billion rubles at the end of last year. Net debt/EBITDA was 2.
The group's president, Maxim Nogotkov, had predicted last April that revenue growth in 2013 would be 20%-30%.
The company did not adjust its forecast after OJSC VimpelCom backed fully out of its partnership with Svyaznoy. Vimpelcom completely abandoned its partnership with Svyaznoy in July of last year, and the retail chain stopped accepting payments for the operator and selling new contracts. In late August, MegaFon also stopped Svyaznoy from accepting its customer payments. Both Vimpelcom and MegaFon are 50-50 owners of Svyaznoy's main competitor Euroset .
Svyaznoy has around 3,500 salons in 900 Russian cities. It holds third place in terms of retail chain size after first-place Euroset and second-place OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) , one of Russia's three biggest telecommunications operators.