MTS ups net profit 39.1% to $547 mln in Q4
MOSCOW. March 19 (Interfax) - Russian top-three cellular provider OJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) boosted its net profit to US GAAP by 39.1% year-on-year to $547.3 million in Q4 2012, the company said in a press release.
That result significantly surpasses the expectations of investment bank analysts, who had forecast net profit at $437 million.
Revenue grew 6.2% to $3.17 billion in Q4, compared to the consensus forecast of $3.145 billion.
Earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) edged up 1% year-on-year to $1.29 billion in Q4, and the EBITDA margin stood at 40.7%, compared to 42.8% a year earlier. EBITDA and the EBITDA margin also surpassed analyst expectations, which were $1.28 billion and 40.7%, respectively.
During a press conference, MTS President Andrei Dubovskov noted that write-offs associated with the termination of its Uzbek subsidiary's activities impacted net profit in 2012. As previously reported, these write-offs totaled $1.08 billion, in light of which MTS saw its 2012 net profit drop 30.2% to $1.007 billion.
Net profit adjusted for the write-offs grew 38.3% to $1.997 billion.
For 2012 as a whole, MTS bumped up its revenue 0.9% to $12.4 billion. EBITDA rose 3% to $5.3 billion, and the EBITDA margin was up from 41.8% to 42.6%.
"Overall, we saw strong operating dynamics in our core Russian and Ukrainian markets, yet our Group top line performance was limited by a significant weakening of the Russian ruble versus the US dollar and the mid-year suspension of our operations in Uzbekistan," Dubovskov is quoted as saying in the press release.
Regarding quarterly revenue, Dubovskov noted that a 1.9% quarter-on-quarter increase in the subscriber base (to 101.02 million users) and higher revenue per user were the chief growth drivers.
Free cash flow, from which MTS expects to calculate dividends, grew 25% to $1.284 billion in 2012.
At the end of 2012, MTS had net debt of $6.778 billion, roughly in line with the start of 2012 ($6.784 billion). The net debt to EBITDA ratio stood at 1.3 as of December 31. The group's total debt rose from $7.642 billion to $8.715 billion in 2012. Ruble-denominated borrowings accounted for 76% of the company's debt portfolio, dollar borrowings accounted for 22%, and the rest was in euro.
In Russia, which is the key market for MTS, revenue jumped 10.5% year-on-year to 88.19 billion rubles in Q4. EBITDA climbed 7.6% to 37.1 billion rubles, and the EBITDA margin was down from 43.2% to 42%.
Net profit in Russia was up 24.8% year-on-year to 14.7 billion rubles in Q4.
In MTS' quarterly revenue structure, the mobile business generated 74.2 billion rubles, up 11.9%. In particular, revenue from mobile data transmission services increased 36% to 9.3 billion rubles. The fixed-line business earned 15.9 billion rubles in revenue in Q4, up 14.7%.
For 2012 as a whole, MTS saw its revenue in Russia grow 8% to 337.9 billion rubles. Revenue from the mobile business rose 9% to 283.6 billion rubles (33.1 billion rubles coming from data transmission services, up 34%), and revenue from the fixed-line business climbed 6% to 61.8 billion rubles.
MTS' Russian EBITDA was up 11.4% to 148 billion rubles in 2012, and the EBITDA margin rose from 42.6% to 43.8%.
Average revenue per user per month grew 8% year-on-year to 306 rubles in Russia in Q4, and it was up 9% to 297 rubles for the year. Average monthly minutes of use increased 14% year-on-year to 323 minutes, and it grew 13% to 304 minutes for 2012.
