"Telenor" turned profit of about 3.64 billion RSD for third quarter of year 2009 - 11% less than in 2008

Company "Telenor" in Serbia registered about 3.64 billion RSD worth of earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the third quarter of year 2009, which is 11% less than in the same period in 2008.

As the people from "Telenor" said today (October 29, 2009), the drop in EBITDA by 450m RSD is the result of the economic crisis, new mobile telephone tax and increase in direct operating costs.

In order to compensate for the drop in profit, the company reduced its capital investments by 12% (85m RSD) in aforementioned period.

The income of "Telenor" in Serbia in the third quarter of year 2009 amounted to 8.11 billion RSD, that is, 84.34m EUR, which is 1.9% less than in the same period in 2008.

- The projection of future growth of the company is uncertain until the mobile telephony tax is in effect - says Gabor Kočiš, the Executive Finance Director in "Telenor".

Number of users of "Telenor" network in Serbia was increased by 1.1% in the period July-September, and it now amounts to 2,862,000.

At the global level, with 4m new subscribers, "Telenor" kept the seventh place with total of 172m users.

Norwegian telecommunication group "Telenor" increased its profit in the third quarter by 16%, to 610m USD, thanks to strong growth in Asian market.