However, Moat also believes that this is an excellent opportunity for the company to win back the market share it lost to smaller and more aggressive players, even if this means engaging in a price war. “We have no debts and enjoy a stable cash-flow, which is a good context to recover market share. We are prepared to attack the competition directly in a price war, if this will be necessary. When the market grows rapidly, all have the same strategy, namely to ride the wave and grow as much as possible. When the market is subject to decline, the strategy of major players differs from that of less powerful operators,” added Moat for Business Standard.
The Orange Romania CEO also believes that maintaining profit margins in current market conditions is an ambitious goal for his company, but that the operator can promote balance in favor of subscriptions because the pre-paid segment registered the largest gains in the past year. “I believe that improving the margins is probably an unrealistic idea. In fact, the maintaining of last year’s margins would be an ambitious goal. However, if we apply cost optimization I trust that we can maintain the same level of profitability as in 2008,” said Richard Moat. Moat also feels that the advance registered on the data segment will not compensate for the losses in voice services, due to price competition and the effects of the recession, although data will constitute the line of business in which future investments will be made. Orange Romania reported revenue in the first nine months of 2008 of €977 million, up 8 percent year-on-year. (S.N.)
