Rostelecom boosts net profit 300% to 12.2 bln rubles in 2008
MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) - Rostelecom posted a net profit of 12.182 billion rubles in 2008 under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), more than four times the 2007 profit of 2.806 billion rubles, the company said in its annual statement.
The profit includes a gain of $463.8 million from sale of a 10.97% stake in Golden Telecom to VimpelCom .
Revenue rose 3.1% last year to 66.629 billion rubles, up from 64.602 billion rubles in 2007. Revenue from the core business - long-distance and international traffic - declined 3.7% to 48.143 billion rubles, including a 7.4% decline in revenue from international traffic to 29.611 billion rubles. Revenue from outgoing international traffic fell 1.9% to 12.082 billion rubles, while revenue from incoming long-distance traffic rose 13% to 6.45 billion rubles.
Long-distance traffic amounted to 10.229 billion minutes (including 8.072 billion minutes charged end users and 2.157 billion minutes charged operators), 0.5% more than in 2007. Rostelecom estimates its share of the domestic long-distance market at 56%.
Outgoing international traffic rose 11.2% to 2.024 billion minutes (including 985 million minutes for end users and 1.039 billion minutes for operators). Incoming international traffic rose 8% to 3.306 billion minutes. Rostelecom's share of those markets was 55% and 52% respectively.
Revenue from channel leasing remained practically unchanged from 2007: 7.71 billion rubles in 2008 compared with 7.725 billion rubles the previous year. Data transmission revenue rose to 5.437 billion rubles from 1.292 billion rubles in 2007.
Expenses fell 2.9% to 59.809 billion rubles and operating profit rose to 6.82 billion rubles from 3.029 billion rubles. Pretax profit equaled 16.073 billion rubles, up from 4 billion rubles in 2007.
Rostelecom had 11.92 billion rubles in cash accounts at the end of the year, up from 3.284 billion rubles a year earlier. Loan debt totaled 2.639 billion rubles compared with 2.757 billion rubles at the end of 2007.
RTS$#&: RTKM, VIMP