Romanian telecom group Digi halves profit in H1

Romanian telecom group Digi Communications halved its net profit in the first six months of this year compared to the same period of 2017, to EUR 15.3 million, despite a 4.8% increase in revenues, to EUR 475.8 million. The profit decline was caused by higher depreciation and amortization expenses, higher operating costs in Hungary, Spain and Italy, the three foreign markets where the group operates, and higher financing costs. In Romania, the group’s revenues increased by 1.7%, to EUR 335 million, while the expenses went down by 7.5%, to EUR 205.7 million. Meanwhile, in Hungary, the group’s revenues were slightly down year-on-year, at EUR 73.9 million, while the expenses went up 15%, to EUR 60.5 million. Digi is the biggest cable TV provider in Romania, where it reached 3.15 million clients at end-June 2018, up 7.7% over June 2017. The group is also the leader on the fixed internet segment, where it recorded an 8.7% increase in the number of residential clients, to 2.24 million, and a 20.5% increase in the number of business clients, to 147,000. On the mobile segment, the number of clients declined by 0.4% year-on-year, to under 3.37 million. However, Digi recorded a 50% increase in the number of mobile clients in Spain and Italy, to over 1.33 million. editor@romania-insider.com