16 Jun 2010 17:55

AFK Sistema

MOSCOW. June 16 (Interfax) - AFK Sistema's US GAAP net profit for the first quarter of 2010 came to $163.5 million in comparison with $395.5 million in net losses for the same period of 2090, the company said in a statement.

The company's sales revenue in the period went up to $6.2 billion from $2.74 billion in the first quarter of 2009. Sistema's OIBDA increased by 97.5% to $1.66 billion while OIBDA dropped from 31.4% to 26.7%.

Investment and banking analysts earlier surveyed by Interfax forecast that Sistema's net profit for the first quarter of 2009 would come to $156.3 million while sales revenue would be at $6.19 billion. They expected OIBDA to come to $1.649 billion and the OIBDA margin at negative 26.7%. Therefore, all of the company's main results for the first quarter exceeded analyst forecasts.

The share of non-telecommunications sectors (including the fuel and energy division) accounted for 57.5% of consolidated sales revenue in the first quarter, up form 20.1% in the same period of 2009 and 56.8% in the second quarter of that year.

The company's operational profit went up by 138.2% to $956.1 billion while operational margin went up to 15.4% in the first quarter compared to 13.1% in the fourth quarter of last year.

Interest expenditures more than doubled from $206.7 million in the same period of 2009 to $430.9 million largely owing to an increase in total debt and rising interest rates.

Sistema's operational cash flow in the first quarter dropped by 50% to $409.1 million. In comparison with the fourth quarter of 2009, the drop came to 72.1%. This generally took place owing to changes in the company's circulating capital.

Cash funds used for the holding's investments came to $204.2 million.

Sistema's capex in the period dropped to 450.7 million from $872.7 million and $867.9 million in the first and fourth quarter of 2009.

Cash flow from financial operations came to $635.5 million. Financing for the period including the Central Bank of India's allocation of a two-year loan worth 5 billion rupees (around $110 million to SSTL and its payment with a loan worth 1.2 billion rupees (around $30 million) from Indian Bank, as well as a loan agreement between Sitronics and Bank of Moscow worth 400 million rubles ($14 million) and interests payments totalling $373.8 million and 347.6 million euro. In addition to this, Sistema received a 2 billion-ruble loan ($70 million) from Raiffeisenbank and fully paid off a $150 million loan owed to VTB. Sistema also paid $42.5 million of a $255 million loan provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Remaining cash funds as of March 31, 2010 came to $3.823 billion in comparison with $3.845 billion as of December 31. The company's net debt at the end of the first quarter dropped to $11.042 billion from $12.324 posted for the same period of 2009.