Telecom Lead India: Sistema of Russia said its revenues
in 2011 were affected by impairment of SSTL (MTS India) 2G licenses.
In 2011, consolidated revenues were up 23 percent to $33
billion.
Net income was $218 million and without one-offs of $999
million.
Net loss attributable to Sistema was $530 million and
without one-offs net income of $261.4 million.
The Group’s consolidated results for the fourth quarter
of 2011 and the full year were impacted mainly by non-cash one-off items
primarily related to the $346 million loss from impairment of SSTL licenses
following India’s Supreme Court ruling to cancel 122 licences, including 21
licenses of SSTL, and $352 million of SSTL goodwill write-off.
Our investments have enjoyed a strong year, delivering a
23 percent increase in revenues and substantial growth in net income, excluding
one-off effects. Foremost, these results are underpinned by excellent organic
growth in our Core Assets portfolio, primarily in the oil and telecoms
segments, where Bashneft increased production by 6.8 percent and benefited from
stable oil prices, while MTS implemented its strategy of monetizing subscriber
base, resulting in strongest sector profitability,” said Mikhail Shamolin,
president and chief executive officer of Sistema.
SSTL’s revenues increased by 77.3 percent year-on-year in
the fourth quarter and by 128.8 percent in 2011.
Strong revenue growth resulted from a substantial 78.0
percent increase in SSTL’s mobile subscriber base which reached 15 million. The
OIBDA loss year-on-year increased due to licence write-offs and the company’s
focus on expanding operations across all circles in the country.
Blended mobile ARPU for the fourth quarter and in 2011
reached $1.85 and $1.78, respectively.
The data card subscriber base more than doubled in 2011
and demonstrated a 23.5 percent growth in the fourth quarter amounting to 1.3
million.
Non-voice revenues from both data and mobile value-added
services for the fourth quarter increased to $25 million. The share of
non-voice revenue as a percentage of total revenue increased by 0.6 p.p. to 33
percent in the fourth quarter.
In October 2011, SSTL launched international roaming
services for its prepaid subscribers enabling them to roam across 433 GSM
networks in 231 countries. In addition, SSTL launched a dual-mode SIM card which
would work both on GSM handsets while abroad and on OMH CDMA handsets while in
India.
In October 2011, SSTL became the first telecom operator
in India to launch High Speed Data (HSD) Connectivity on the 350 km National
Highway between the two cities, Bengaluru and Chennai.
In September 2011, SSTL successfully launched the world’s
first CDMA EV“DO
Rev. B Phase II network in the city of Jaipur.
In August 2011, SSTL launched India’s most affordable
Android smartphones MTS MTAG 3.1 and MTS Livewire, which are based on
Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 processors.
