Mobilink Posts Decreased YoY Revenues and EBITDA

Orascom Telecom Holding reported net loss for the fourth quarter of 2009, as high as $46 million due to unfavorable events in Algeria and a tax-rate increase in Pakistan.
The company didn’t give a fourth-quarter comparative figure in its statement and issued only combined financial figures for year 2009.
Orascom Telecom net profit in the third quarter of 2009 was almost $181 million. The company’s 2009 net profit was $318 million.
Total number of subscribers reached 93 million, up 19% from a year earlier.
“Income was mainly impacted by the unfavorable events that took place in Algeria, as well as the increase in the tax rate in Pakistan,” said OT statement.
The company said its net revenue for 2009 was $5.07 billion, a decrease of 4.9 % from last year.
Orascom was bombarded with $600 million tax claim and penalties for the fiscal years 2004 to 2007 despite the fact that Orascom Telecom Algeria, or OTA, was tax exempt until mid-2007, the company said in November.
“We are keen to stay in Algeria; it is one of our main assets and until this incident we were very happy there. However, we need to understand if our investment is welcome there or not. If not, we will consider other options,” said Orascom Telecom’s Chairman Naguib Sawiris in the statement.
Orascom Telecom is in a one-year dispute with France Telecom over their stakes in Mobinil, Egypt’s largest mobile operator by market subscribers.
OT has operations in countries including Algeria, Pakistan, Tunisia, Bangladesh and North Korea.
Mobilink’s Financial Stats for 2009

Mobilink’s YoY revenues decreased by 12.3 percent in USD, however it remained stable in local currency with 0.7 percent decrease. EBITDA for Mobilink decreased by 9.2% in local currency vs a decrease of 22% in US$.
The ARPU in Q4 ’09 increased by 3.2% (in PKR) as compared to Q3 09. Churn in Q4 09 decreased by 6.6  as compared to the same period in 2008, whereas the subscriber base grew by 8.1%, boasting a total subscriber base of 30.8 Million for 2009.
Capital expenditure in 2009 reached US$ 157 Million, a decrease of 71% over the previous year’s figure of US$ 537 Million.
Orascom claims that According to internal reporting, Mobilink’s market share reached 40.5% in 2009.
Orascom’s Earning Report for 2009 can be downloaded by clicking this link – PDF File (1.1 MB) Right Click and Select “Save Target as”