The Russia-based service provider MTS has reported $3.17 billion as the revenue for the quarter ending December 2012.
For the period under review, the operator?s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at $1.29 billion. According to MTS, the growth in profits was impacted by the investment made by it in the retail distribution and provisions for the shutdown of its operations in Uzbekistan.
For the quarter ending December 2012, the operator?s net income stood at $547.3 million on account of lower financing costs and forex gains. However, for the year 2012, the company fell short of its target of achieving 7 per cent revenue growth. Its sales increased marginally by 0.9 per cent mainly on account of the withdrawal of services from Uzbekistan.
By deploying a number of cost control measures, MTS managed to achieve operating income before depreciation and amortisation of 42.6 per cent. Its group capex for 2012 stood at $ 2.90 billion. With the completion 3G network roll-out ahead of the schedule, the operator expects its capex to come down in 2013.
However, MTS expects capex to be at about 20 per cent of the company?s revenues on account of planned 4G roll-out by it in 2013. It expects capex of 18-19 per cent of its total sales for 2013- 2015. MTS is targeting a revenue growth of about five to seven per cent in 2013 and achieving an EBITDA margin of 41 to 42 per cent.
