Baltic, Markets and Companies, Telecomunications

The number of Tele2 clients in Latvia also declined – at the end of March the company had 1.083 mobile telecommunications subscribers, down from 1.127 million a year ago, the quarterly report by Sweden's Tele2 suggests.

The report notes the sharp economic downturn Latvia saw during the first three months of this year, which also affected the activity of the mobile telecommunications segment. As a result of this, competition increased while prices dipped.

"In Latvia, Tele2 sees good perspectives in the corporate segment, as well as among state-owned companies. These business opportunities increase with the economic slump as corporate users mind the price increasingly," Tele2 said.

Tele2, owned by Sweden's Tele2, is the largest mobile operator in Latvia by the number of subscribers and second largest by turnover. In 2008, Tele2 raised sales by 5.9% to 130 million lats, while the company's EBITDA in 2008 came to 48 million lats, declining 14.6% from the previous year.

The Tele2 telecom group has published its Q1 results, from which it appears that the pre-tax profit of its Estonian unit contracted by 18% on year to 60 million Swedish kronor.

Of this the mobile sphere yielded a profit of 58 million kronor.

The sum total of Tele2's revenue in Estonia has fallen by a few million Swedish kronor on year and totalled 271 million kronor in Q1.

The operating profit before depreciation of Tele2 Eesti was 78 million kronor against 90 million kronor the year before.

During the quarter Tele2 Eesti invested 45 million Swedish kronor in Estonia.

As of the end of March Tele2 Eesti had 489,000 mobile clients. The year before the figure was 495,000.

Tele2, the Lithuanian subsidiary of Sweden's mobile operator Tele2, reported 431 million Swedish kronor (LTL 132.4 mln, EUR 38.4 mln) in revenues in the first three months of this year, up 17.8% from the year-earlier figure of 366 million kronor (LTL 122.4 mln).

The revenues on mobile services grew by 17.2%, to 422 million kronor (LTL 129.6 mln), the revenues on landline services doubled, to 2 million kronor (LTL 0.6 mln), and the revenues on Internet connection increased by 40%, to 7 million kronor (LTL 2.15 mln), Sweden's Tele2 said in its three-month report.

The company's EBITDA in Lithuania rose by 27.4%, to 158 million kronor (LTL 48.5 mln), from 124 million kronor (LTL 38.1 mln) in January-March 2008.

The company's EBITDA margin in Lithuania made up 37% in the first quarter, exceeding the respective rate for the whole Tele2 group (22 pct).

The operator's EBIT in Lithuania totaled 133 million kronor (LTL 40.9 mln) in January-March, up 29.1% from the year-earlier figure of 103 million kronor (LTL 31.6 mln).

The number of mobile subscribers increased by 4.6%, year-on-year, to 1.916 million, in Lithuania as of late March, the company said. Compared with late December, however, the ranks of mobile subscribers of the company narrowed by 8,000.