OREANDA-NEWS. Mobile services operator life:) announces its financial and operational results for the fourth quarter and full year, ended December 31, 2012. Accordingly, the company continued its solid financial performance in the year 2012 having recorded considerable growth in all major financial and operational indicators. Among them are: 10.2% of revenue growth, 21.8% of EBITDA increase and 14.3% - rise of subscriber base.

REVENUE: In 2012 revenues increased by 10.2% YoY to UAH 3.24 billion from UAH 2.94 billion in 2011. In Q4 2012, life:)’s revenue grew by 5.2% to UAH 823.4 million (compared to UAH 783.0 million in Q4 2011). The main factors behind revenue growth include: subscriber base increase, and a rise in mobile data and other value added services revenues.

EBITDA & EBITDA MARGIN: In 2012 EBITDA rose by 21.8% YoY to UAH 914.4 million from UAH 750.6 million in 2011, and in Q4 2012 – by 10.9% to UAH 220.3 million from UAH 198.6 million in Q4 2011. At the same time, the EBITDA margin rose by 2.7 pp to 28.2% in 2012 compared to 25.5% in 2011, and in Q4 2012 – by 1.4 pp to 26.8% from 25.4% in Q4 2011. This is mostly due to effective marketing approach as well as efficient cost control measures conducted by the company.

SUBSCRIBER BASE: In 2012 the number of registered subscribers increased to 11.1 million by 1.4 million clients YoY. At the same time life:)’s 3-month active subscriber base grew by 1.0 million to 8.0 million users compared to 7.0 million in 2011. This growth was driven by successful regional strategy.

ARPU and MOU: In 2012 3-month active ARPU has decreased by 4.5% YoY to UAH 35.8 compared to UAH 37.5 in 2011. In Q4 2012 this indicator decreased by 8.3% to UAH 34.1, compared to UAH 37.2 in Q4 2011. In 2012 MoU has decreased by 4.4% YoY, and in Q4, 2012 by 5.2% against Q4 2011. While the ARPU decrease was mainly driven by the price competition in the market, in particular in voice offers, the decline in MOU was mainly related to the lower usage of new subscribers.

NET LOSS and CAPEX: In 2012 life:) decreased its net loss by 25.7% to UAH 448.1 million, compared to UAH 603.5 million in 2011. At the same time, in 2012 the operator increased its Capex by 19.6% to UAH 621.8 million against UAH 520.0 million in 2011.

Alexander Barinov, CEO of life:) commented that: “2012 was a highly successful year for our company in terms of growing its financial and operational indicators. In 2012 one million more subscribers joined our life:) community, growing the number of active customers to eight million. I am happy that they were attracted by our affordable and feasible tariffs and services, improved network quality, high speed mobile Internet and effective brand communication. In 2013 we will continue our focus on attracting new subscribers, and enhancing network capacity with special attention on the most remote regions of Ukraine, and definitely on offering our clients innovative products and services”.