Turkcell Q3 profit up on falling revenues

Turkey’s largest wireless network operator by subscribers Turkcell has posted a 12% rise in third-quarter net profit to TRY556.3 million (USD394.6 million), on sales which fell 1.7% percent to TRY2.327 billion. Turkcell said revenues had been hit by regulations that took force earlier this year which halved mobile termination rates. EBITDA climbed 6.1% to TRY864 million, helped by improving margins, better cost control and a turnaround strategy at Ukraine unit Astelit, where margins soared. In its domestic market Turkcell reported a year-on-year 5.8% decline in its mobile customer base to 33.9 million, although post-paid users rose by 8.8% to 8.9 million. Average revenue per user rose by 3.6% to TRY20.4 per month, compared to TRY19.7 in the same period of 2009, while minutes of use jumped by 32.6% to 197.1 on the back of enhanced tariff offers. The company’s fixed broadband subsidiary Superonline, which is rolling out a fibre-optic network, had passed 480,000 homes at the end of September 2010, extending 18,400km in total. In Ukraine, Astelit, in which Turkcell owns a 55% stake, ended the quarter with 6.3 million active subscribers, down from 7.8 million a year earlier, as a result of a change in definition to ‘active with the last three months’. Fintur, which has interests in wireless operators in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia, and in which Turkcell owns a 41.45% stake, ended September with 15.2 million customers, up almost 17% year-on-year.