OREANDA-NEWS. On August 06, 2009 Mobile services operator life:) announced its financial and operational results for the second quarter of 2009.  The operator’s subscriber base keeps growing despite macroeconomic instability – now it unites 11,7 million subscribers, reported the press-centre of SCM.
 
The second quarter of 2009 was still challenging for the Ukrainian economy. Hryvnia depreciated on average by around 55% against US as of June 30, 2009 compared to a year ago and the general macro-economic environment in Ukraine remained highly volatile. Nevertheless, life:) is overcoming economic turbulence and delivers the planned business results.
 
In Q2 2009 life:) kept increasing it’s subscriber’s base, which reached 11,7 million with growth of 17.0% annually, and the operator’s market share has grown to 21.8%. New subscribers are attracted by reasonable and beneficial tariffs, big improvements in network quality and customer care.
 
Three month active subscriber base grew by 35.6% year on year and reached 68% of the total subscriber base. Three month active ARPU decreased by 44.4% on an annual basis.
 
In Q2 2009 life:) revenue grew by around 8,7% comparing to previous quarter and reached US85.9 million. life:)’s revenue in US dollars declined by 22.0% year on year mainly due to the depreciation effect of the local currency against the US. At the same time, in the local currency life:) revenue grew by 20.6% in Q2, 2009 year on year. 
 
life:) recorded a positive EBITDA of US2.3 million during the second quarter. In Q2 life:) spent US35.1 million in capital expenditure.
 
The CEO of life:) Tansu Yegen has commented: ‘Macroeconomic turbulence was the main challenge of the second quarter of 2009. Despite the overall market instability we feel optimistic as our company manages to show stable results up to the shareholders expectations. We believe in the recovery of Ukraine’s economy in the shortest terms. That is why we continue  investments in our network every day improving its quality and coverage.  Also, we believe that now it is good time to look for better solutions and offer subscribers simple and affordable tariffs with high quality communication which will help minimize the effect of current turbulence on their lives and business”.