OREANDA-NEWS. On 14 April 2008 Rostelecom, Russia’s national LD operator, announced its audited results for 2007 that were compiled under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

“Rostelecom’s 2007 performance underscored the sustainability of the company’s positions in the traditional sectors of the telecommunications market in the new competitive environment following LD market reforms” – Rostelecom CEO Konstantin Solodukhin pointed out adding that “the company continues to bolster its competitive positions on the international interconnect market, the line lease market and is taking concerted action to roll out other high-tech services.

Our priorities for 2008 are to substantially broaden Rostelecom’s presence on new promising markets along with retaining our positions in the traditional segments of the telecom market”.

Rostelecom’s 2007 revenue jumped 4.3% y-o-y to Rub 62,588.2 mln.

Based on annual results, DLD traffic came to 10,174.8 mln minutes or 4.7% more than in 2006. The telecom company’s DLD earnings rose 0.7% to Rub 32,045 mln. Outgoing ILD traffic lowered 5.8% to 1,820.1 mln minutes. Revenues derived from ILD services provided to Russian customers amounted to Rub 12,325.7 mln, showing a 6.8% y-o-y increase.

ILD traffic from foreign operators leapt 24.4% y-o-y to 3,062.2 mln showing that Rostelecom’s positions continue to strengthen on the international interconnect market. Earnings generated from the termination and transit of incoming ILD traffic climbed 29.2% to Rub 5,714.8 mln in 2007.

The company’s earnings from other services rose 18.5% compared to 2006 to Rub 12,502.7 mln. Improvements were primarily due to higher earnings from line lease operations, intellectual network, datacom and telematics services, as well as from technical support.

Rostelecom’s profit from line lease services jumped 8.9% against 2006 to Rub 7,751.8 mln, while earnings generated from datacom and telematics services skyrocketed 4.7 times to a record Rub 975.2 mln in 2007. Intellectualnetworkrevenuesgrew41% toRub1,072.5 mln.

The telecom operator’s operating expenses amounted to Rub 54,511 mln, rising 4.3% against the year-earlier period.

Depreciation charges totaled Rub 3,880 mln in 2007. A 19.1% increase in 2007 depreciation charges was driven by the startup of a number of fixed assets in 2006.

EBITDA grew 8.3% y-o-y to Rub 11,957.2 mln and EBITDA margin came in at 19.1%.

2007 operating profit amounted to Rub 8,077.2 mln or 3.7% higher than the 2006 figure.
 
Other income and expenditure equaled Rub 4,517 mln in 2007 compared to Rub 2,108.8 mln a year earlier. This item mainly improved vs. 2006 due to profits from the revaluation of the company’s financial investments. In 2007, the revaluation of the telecom carrier’s financial investments totaled Rub 5,561.3 mln in 2007 compared to Rub 2,376.8 mln in 2006.

Rostelecom’s 2007 net profit surged 31.2% to Rub 9,423.9 mln.