Turkcell records highest quarterly revenue to date

Turkcell, Turkey’s largest wireless network operator by subscribers, has announced that it has posted its highest ever quarterly revenue of TRY2.527 billion (USD1.415 billion); this figure represents an 8.6% increase on the TRY2.327 billion recorded in 3Q10. EBITDA rose 0.9% year-on-year to TRY871.3 million, whilst net income grew 3.4% from TRY537.2 million to TRY556.3 million. Turkcell’s domestic revenues rose 4.8% to TRY2.174 billion, primarily driven by increased mobile internet revenues and post-paid subscriber additions. Meanwhile, the total revenues contributed by Turkcell’s foreign subsidiaries improved by 39.8% to TRY353 million; the subsidiaries’ contribution to the top line figure rose to 14.0% from 10.9% year-on-year.

In its domestic market Turkcell reported a 1.5% annual increase in its mobile customer base, which climbed from 33.9 million to 34.4 million. The bulk of the net new additions were post-paid subscribers – up 11.1% to eleven million – whilst pre-paid subscriptions declined 2.5% to 23.4 million. Blended average revenue per user increased 3.4% to TRY21.1 per month, compared to TRY20.4 in the same period of 2010, while minutes of use jumped by 12.8% to 222.3 on the back of enhanced tariff offers.

The company’s fixed broadband subsidiary Superonline, which is in the process of rolling out a nationwide fibre-optic network, passed 831,000 homes at the end of 3Q11, and now extends 28,000km in total; as at end-September Superonline had notched up 215,000 fibre-optic subscribers. Superonline’s contribution to Turkcell group financials continued to improve, with the unit recording 36.2% y-o-y revenue growth, to TRY123.9 million. Turkcell says that this primarily stemmed from a continued focus on residential growth, which increased 92.7% y-o-y.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Astelit, in which Turkcell owns a 55% stake, ended the quarter with 7.1 million ‘active’ subscribers, up from 6.4 million a year earlier, with the unit’s total subscriber base dropping from 9.8 million to 9.3 million. 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 17.3 million customers, up almost 14% year-on-year.