Serbia's Vip Mobile earned EUR 37.3 million in Q1 2012

Telekom Austria Group said on Thursday its Serbian wireless unit, Vip Mobile, cut its negative earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) by an annual 22.7% to 6.8 million euro ($8.8 million) in the first quarter of 2012, SeeNews reports.

The Austrian group said in its quarterly report that Vip Mobile boosted its mobile subscriber base by 17.1% to 1.672 million through March by focusing on contract share growth as well as on the mobile broadband segment.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) surged 139.2% on the year to 10.3 million euro through March while revenues rose 23.5% to 37.3 million euro.

The company's market share rose to 16.1% through March compared to 14.2% a year earlier. In the first quarter of 2012, the mobile penetration rate in Serbia was 141.1%, up from 135.6% on the year.

In Serbia, a country of 7.3 million people, Vip competes with state-owned MTS and the local arm of Norway's Telenor.