Romania is growth engine for Vodafone Group in CEE

"Our operating profit registered an upward trend, reaching $391.67 million (€287.57 million), and EBITDA [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization], accounted for 48.2 percent of total revenue in the past six months. Romania remains one of the divisions with the best performances within the Vodafone group and the company's growth engine in Central and Eastern Europe [CEE]," said Liliana Solomon, CEO of Vodafone Romania.

Vodafone posted $397.74 mln (€289.31 mln) in revenue from services in the second fiscal quarter, ending on 30 September 2007, while EBITDA amounted to $204.89 mln (€149.01 mln), and made up for 49.2 percent of total revenue. EBITDA surged by 21.4 percent, to $391.67 mln (€287.57 mln) in H1 of the fiscal year.

Vodafone Romania reached 8,579,377 clients by the end of September, a 19.9 percent annual increase. According to the company it added 625,514 clients to its portfolio in the first half of the 2007-2008 fiscal year, of which 355,932 in the last quarter.

"We continue to register a constant and "healthy" increase in our client portfolio, by 8.579 million clients by the end of September 2007, with a strong increase in revenue from services, of an annual 23.1 percent," said Liliana Solomon. She added that the company's average revenue per user (ARPU) value is the highest on the Romanian Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) market, at $15.71 (€11.54) in the quarter ending on 30 September 2007. There were 495,578 3G users by 30 September 2007.

Orange Romania, Vodafone's main competitor, posted €326 mln in revenue and 9.31 million clients by the end of the quarter ending on 30 September, up by 783,000 from the previous quarter.

Cosmote Romania, the third-largest mobile phone operator on the local market in terms of clients, registered total revenue worth €105.2 mln in this year's first nine months, up 296 percent year-on-year. Cosmote surpassed the 3 million client threshold in less than two years since it began operating on the local market, and now has an estimated 13 percent market share.

Vodafone Group posted net profit worth £3.29 billion (€4.68 bln) in H1 of this fiscal year, compared to £5.1 bln (€7.26) in losses registered in the previous year. The group’s turnover soared by 9 percent, to £17 bln (€24.22 bln), due to the company's expansion on emerging markets.