GTS Central Europe: stable revenue, 20% EBITDA growth
August 15, 2007
GTS Central Europe, one of the leading telecommunications service providers of the region, today reported its financial results for the first half of 2007. Achieving a solid underlying performance, the company's revenues after elimination of inter-company transactions reached EUR 192 m that practically equalled with the same period last year. EBITDA grew by 20% to EUR 34,5 m compared to the same period in 2006.
This significant EBITDA growth was boosted primarily by GTS Novera, Czech subsidiary of GTS Central Europe, the leading alternative service provider of the Czech telecommunications market. GTS Novera reported an EBITDA of EUR 16.3 m, up by 36% over H1 2006, mainly due to a greater efficiency through successfully accomplished integration followed up by the transformation of the company. Despite the EBITDA growth, revenues declined slightly by 6% to EUR 101,6 m. This was compensated by the strong performance of GTS Central Europe's other four subsidiaries in their market.
In Slovakia, GTS Nextra delivered excellent results for H1 2007 and contributed EUR 11.8 m to group revenues, against EUR 9.6 m in H1 2006. EBITDA increased significantly by 37% to EUR 3 m during the period under review. Hungarian subsidiary GTS Datanet also maintained its market position and reported EUR 27,5 m revenue, up by 14% over H1 2006. EBITDA decreased slightly by 1% to EUR 4.3 m as a result of the company's local loop unbundling based investments.
Revenue of GTS Telecom, a key alternative service provider in Romania increased by 16% to EUR 7.3 m, and EBITDA amounted to EUR 1.6, up by 8% compared to H1 2006. In Poland, GTS Energis preserved its leading position in the alternative market; revenues were approximately flat at EUR 50 m, while EBITDA reached EUR 10.8 m against EUR 9.5 m in H1 2006.
"2006 saw a number of positive developments for our company" said Tamás Polgár, CEO of GTS Central Europe. "In line with our strategy, we continued to focus on regional businesses and executed a number of prestigious wholesale and retail projects including a Central European MPLS network development for JYSK Danish furniture vendor and Palace Cinemas multiplex movie operator."
"At the same time, we took even more advantage of synergies created by our earlier acquisitions and increased efficiency through network interconnection, technology unification and improvements in headcount productivity. As a result, the company enjoyed a successful period exceeding our own expectations with a 20% EBITDA growth, while group revenue remained broadly stable. These figures underline that we are on track to achieve our targets set for this year. Regarding our strategy going forward, we expect similar results for the second half of the year" he added.
About GTS
GTS Central Europe is a leading provider of integrated telecommunications services in Central and Eastern Europe. GTS owns and operates an extensive fiber optic and data center network throughout the region. In the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, the company combines its regional footprint with deep local networks to deliver a broad range of services. From basic voice and data to complex virtual private networks and managed data center services, GTS assembles the latest technology with its extensive network to provide industry-leading customer solutions. Wit a rich operating history of nearly 20 years in CEE, the company is committed to providing service excellence and value to its 30,000 government, carrier and business customers. GTS is owned by a consortium of leading international private equity firms with extensive experience in the communications and technology industries. For more information, please visit us at www.gtsce.com.
