ER-Telecom to expand investment program 14% in 2012
PERM. April 23 (Interfax) - The investment program of ER-Telecom will total about 8 billion rubles in 2012, the telecommunications holding company's chief executive, Andrei Semerikov told Interfax.
This would be a 14% increase over the approximately 7 billion rubles of investment the company reported in 2011.
Semerikov said 90% of the investment would go into construction of new and expansion of existing networks, and the remainder would be spent on modernization of networks and introduction of new products.
He also said that ER-Telecom Holding is expected to close 2012 with IFRS revenue of slightly under 15 billion rubles, and EBITDA of more than 500 million rubles, as well as a small net profit. The group's subscriber base is forecast to reach about 5.5 million subscribers.
It was reported earlier that ER-Telecom increased revenue by 43% to 9.7 billion rubles in 2011, and posted a net loss of 2.08 billion rubles, compared to a net profit of 225 million rubles a year earlier. EBITDA was a negative 814.9 million rubles compared to a positive 1.15 billion rubles in 2010. ER-Telecom attributed the losses to substantial growth of capital expenditures as the company began to build networks and provide services in 15 new cities. The company's operations expanded from 27 cites at the end of 2010 to 42 cities.
ER-Telecom's subscriber base increased by 44% to 3.912 million.
ER-Telecom's strategy calls for winning at least a 20% share, in value, of the Russian Internet access and pay TV services market by 2014.
PFPG Holding, which is controlled by Andrei Kuzyayev, president of Lukoil Overseas, owns 75% of ER-Telecom. Baring Vostok Capital Partners (BVCP) owns 10% and management owns 14.5%.