Financial Results 1H 2003

1. OVERVIEW

COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS S.A., the leading provider of mobile tele-communication services in Greece, announces its consolidated financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2003, prepared in accordance with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP, unaudited).

REPORTABLE SEGMENT ANALYSIS (US GAAP, unaudited)

(in euro '000) GREECE ALBANIA /AMC CONSOLIDATED

H1-03 H1-02 Δ % H1-03 H1-02 Δ % H1-03 H1-02 Δ %

Revenues 574,650 505,072 13.8 49,786 49,267 1.1 622,294 551,123 12.9

EBITDA 235,625 202,585 16.3 28,141 33,966 -17.1 263,689 236,726 11.4

EBITDA margin 41.0% 40.1% 56.5% 68.9% 42.4% 42.9%

Net Income 104,193 89,503 16.4 15,108 13,315 13.5 114,688 99,432 15.3

Net Income margin 18.1% 17.7% 30.3% 27.0% 18.4% 18.0%

Group operating revenues for the period under review amounted to ? 622.3 mil, up 12.9% y-o-y, driven by continuing strong growth in Greek operations and stability in AMC performance, as shown in the table above.

Despite intense competition and ongoing regulatory challenges, COSMOTE?s group profitability was sustained at high levels. More, specifically EBITDA reached euro 263.7 mil, posting an EBITDA margin of 42.4%.

Group Earnings amounted to euro 114.7 mil (+ 15.3% y-o-y), with net income margin at 18.4%. It is also noted that group free cash flow reached euro 128.7 mil while Net Debt decreased to euro 233.3 mil.

2. FINANCIAL REVIEW

A. COSMOTE Condensed Consolidated Financial Results for the six months ended June 30, 2003 and 2002

Amounts in euro (.000), except per share data H1-2003 H1-2002 % change Revenues 622,294 551,123 12.9%of which telecom revenues 608,856 538,157 13.1%

EBITDA 263,689 236,726 11.4%

EBITDA Margin 42.4% 42.9%

EBT 182,256 159,018 14.6%

Net Income (after taxes) 117,285 101,472 15.6%

Net Income (after minority interests) 114,688 99,432 15.3%

Net Income Margin 18.4% 18.0%

Earnings per Share (euro) 0.347 0.301 15.3%

Number of shares outstanding 330,139,120 330,055,870

Total group operating revenues for the six months ended June 30, 2003 increased by 12.9% to reach euro 622.3 mil. Excluding the recent change in OTE?s accounting policy regarding Fixed to Mobile revenues (that are recorded net instead of gross ), y-o-y group operating revenue growth in H1-03 would have been over 15%.

The overall revenue increase mainly reflects the 14.4% increase in airtime revenues, the 13.3% increase in monthly service fees, the 10.6% increase in interconnection revenues and the 17% increase in SMS revenues. Furthermore, during the period under review, revenues from telecommunications services increased by 13.1% representing 98% of total revenues.

Condensed Quarterly Consolidated Financial Results

Amounts in euro (.000) Q2-03 Q1-03 q-o-q Δ% Q2-02 y-o-y Δ%

Revenues 325,167 297,127 9.4% 287,675 13.0%

EBITDA 136,649 127,040 7.6% 122,656 11.4%

EBITDA Margin 42.0% 42.8% 42.6%

Net Income (after minority interests) 60,984 53,704 13.6% 50,426 20.9%

Net Income Margin 18.8% 18.1% 17.5%

On a quarterly basis total operating revenues increased by almost 10%. In addition during Q2-03 net income grew by 13.6%, on a quarterly basis, resulting in a y-o-y growth of more than 20%.

The key driver behind healthy revenue growth is the significant increase in COSMOTE' s (domestic operations: GREECE) traffic volumes that during the first half of 2003 have exceeded 2.1 billion minutes (or 32% y-o-y growth).

The significant tariff cuts (on average -25% effected with the introduction of the bundled packages) were offset by the aforementioned traffic increase, proof of positive usage elasticity. As a result COSMOTE?s (domestic) revenues grew by 13.8% with airtime revenues increasing by 17.9%.

In addition data revenues (which include SMS, WAP and other ?soft data? revenues from Value Added Services) represent approximately 13% of total consolidated revenues and 14% of domestic operations revenues.

Roaming revenues grew y-o-y by approximately 4%, accounting for 2% of total operating revenues. During the second quarter of the year, the Company signed 7 additional roaming agreements that at the end of H1-03 amount to 284, in 131 countries.

As previously mentioned consolidated profitability was sustained at high levels, with EBITDA reaching euro 263.7 mil, and EBITDA margin 42.4%. Excluding the impact from the M2M termination rates, group EBITDA margin would have been 48.6%.

The slight dilution in group EBITDA margin (0.5 p.p.) compared to one year ago, is attributed to the decrease of AMC?s EBITDA margin to 56.5% from 68.9% in H1-02 (which is diluted from the new mobile to mobile termination charges).

Greek operations EBITDA margin posted a 1 p.p. y-o-y increase, reaching 41%. This improvement reflects the healthy 16.3% y-o-y growth in domestic EBITDA mostly a result of Operating Expenses growing at a lesser rate than revenues.

Group Earnings amounted to euro 114.7 mil, up 15.3% y-o-y aided by the decrease in financial expenses (Albanian operations), with Net Income margin at 18.4%.

Net Income recorded in domestic operations grew by 16.4%, to reach ? 104.2 mil, with net income margin improving to 18.1% from 17.7% posted during H1-02 results. Greek operations earnings reaffirm the sustained strong operational and financial performance evidenced in the local market.

More importantly Free Cash Flow at the end of H1-03 reached euro 128.7 mil. At the same time Net Debt decreased to euro 233.3 mil from euro 361.3 mil as at December 31, 2002, as a result of the enhanced cash generation mentioned above.

Capital Expenditures during the period under review have notably decreased to euro 65.2 mil, from euro 127.8 mil in H1-02, leading to a CAPEX/Sales ratio of 10.5% compared to 23.2% a year ago.

B. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: ARPU & AMOU (COSMOTE Greece)

H1-02 9m02 FY2002 Q1-03 H1-03

AMOU, blended (min) 91 95 98 96 101

AMOU, contract (min) 155 164 169 180 191

ARPU, blended (euro) 28.4 29.8 30 27.5 28.0

ARPU, contract (euro) 42.8 46.2 46.7 44.3 46.4

SMS, blended 42 42 41 39 39

Blended AMOU during H1-03 has reached 101 min, compared to 91 min during the same period last year. This is attributed to the continuous quarterly strong growth in contract AMOU that has resulted in a 36 minutes increase on a yearly basis (~ 23% higher). This positive trend, a continuation of the trend seen in 2002 as well as the first quarter of 2003, underpins the fact that voice usage represents the key growth driver in the Greek mobile market.

COSMOTE blended ARPU for the period under review was almost stable compared to a year ago (at euro 28.0), absorbing:

  • the significant tariff cuts (as previously mentioned)
  • the dilution effect from the higher proportion of prepaid customers in the total customer base (~59% compared to ~53% at the end of H1-02) and
  • the change in OTE's F2M accounting policy (negative effect on blended ARPU: euro 0.7)

The key driver behind ARPU evolution is the increase in contract ARPU, that at end of H1-03 was euro 46.4 (+ 8.4% y-o-y). This is mainly attributed to the aforementioned continuous growth in usage that to a large extent has offset the recent tariff rebalancing and the lower fixed to mobile interconnection charges.

The blended average monthly number of SMS per customer stood at 39, compared to 42 during the same period last year (H1-02), partly diluted by MMS . The Company has (since launch) recorded approximately 130,000 MMS users that currently send on average around 14,000 MMS per day.

C. ALBANIAN MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS Sh.a (AMC)

COSMOTE has been consolidating its majority owned subsidiary in Albania since year 2000. During the six months ended June 30, 2003 AMC contributed approximately 8.0% to the Company?s consolidated revenues and 10.7% to COSMOTE group EBITDA.

Summary Condensed Financial Results for the six months ended June 30, 2003 and 2002 (US GAAP, unaudited)

Amounts in euro (.000) H1-2003 H1-2002 % change

Total operating revenues 49,786 49,267 1.1%

EBITDA 28,141 33,966 -17.1%

EBITDA margin 56.5% 68.9%

Depreciation 8,507 6,973 22.0%

EBIT (Operating Income) 19,634 26,993 -27.3%

EBT (net income, before provision for income taxes) 20,479 17,450 17.4%

Net Income (after taxes) 15,108 13,315 13.5%

AMC?s revenues during the first six months of 2003 amounted to euro 49.8 mil (see footnote 8 below). In addition we note that the company's operational growth, as reflected in the local currency revenues, was approximately 11% y-o-y (see Appendix IV) mainly attributed to AMC?s customer growth.

At the end of June 2003, mobile telephony penetration in Albania is estimated at around 32% (the highest rate in all Balkan counties, achieved in the fastest time). Based on the above it is considered that the Albanian mobile market has entered a stability phase.

AMC's EBITDA during the first half of 2003 reached approximately euro 28.1 mil, resulting in a 56.5% EBITDA margin. EBITDA was mainly impacted by the newly introduced M2M termination rates that started being officially charged from the beginning of 2003.

Finally Net Income margin in the first six months of 2003 improved to 30.3% compared to 27.0% in the previous year mainly due to foreign exchange gains compared to losses in H1-02.

COSMOTE's CEO, Evangelos Martigopoulos, commented: COSMOTE's group performance as evidenced in its 2003 interim financial results reflects the ongoing strong performance of the Greek operations, mainly driven by significant increase in traffic volumes. The Company continues to produce double-digit growth and high profitability levels while meeting all regulatory challenges. More importantly COSMOTE's financial results prove the existence of significant cash flow generating capability with which we aim to realize our strategic focus of rewarding our shareholders with increased returns.


Search
Toolbox
Market

Composite index

Calendar

FinancialCalendarPortlet

Asset Publisher