Vodafone's local revenues slide 21%, profit down 25%

Telecom operator Vodafone Romania posted EUR 921.5 million in revenues during the 12 months ending March 31st, which represented a 21 percent year on year decrease, the company has announced. Its EBITDA (Earnings Before Interests, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) went down 25 percent to EUR 396 million. Vodafone's EBITDA margin reached 43 percent during the financial year. The company managed to grow its customer base by 142,00 users, reaching 9.7 million users. Postpaid customers accounted for 38 percent and prepaid for 62 percent of Vodafone Romania’s total customer base. “At the end of a challenging year, in which the entire economy was impacted by the crisis, our results show a 20 percent drop in revenues compared to the previous financial year, following the downwards trend of the entire telecommunications industry in Romania. However, our efficiency oriented strategy helped us to maintain a high EBITDA margin, only 3 percent lower than last year,” said Liliana Solomon, Vodafone Romania CEO (in picture). “This allowed us to continue to invest significantly in Romania, a recent example being the launch of 3G services in the 900 MHz frequency. We are pleased that, in a year of economic downturn, we managed to contribute to the digitization of the country and to the future growth, offering our users a high speed mobile Internet network available at national level”, Solomon went on. “Even if the revenue decrease rate has slowed down quarter to quarter, we cannot yet talk about a recovery of the market”, Liliana Solomon added. Vodafone's average revenue per user (ARPU) for the 12 months rolling ended March 31, 2010 was EUR 7.7 for the year ending March 31, 2010, as compared to EUR 9.8, at the end of March, 2009. Vodafone Romania is a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc.