Russia's biggest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) reported a profit jump in the second quarter - its group net profit increased 46.5% to 17.2 billion roubles ($232 million).
MTS said in a media release that its Q2 2021 consolidated group revenue increased by 10.6% year-on-year to RUB128.6 billion (USD1.7 billion) on the back of ‘growth in all key segments: core connectivity, fintech, retail sales, B2B cloud & digital solutions, and media services’, driving operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) up by 10.2% to RUB57.2 billion.
Given its sustained performance, the Company upgraded its full-year 2021 outlook to high-single-digit growth in revenue as well as OIBDA growth of at least 5%, while expected Cash CAPEX for the year was reaffirmed at approximately RUB 100-110 bn.
Vyacheslav Nikolaev, President & CEO, said: “Operationally, we made robust progress across key segments of our digital ecosystem, reflected in strong customer acquisition and retention in all segments. In Media, the number of OTT TV viewers (rebranded as KION in 2021) nearly tripled year-over-year to 3.2 million, while MTS Bank added around 100,000 new clients during the quarter."
"Overall, the number of MTS ecosystem customers grew by almost a million in Q2, reaching 7.4 million. Our ecosystem approach unlocks new opportunities to capture incremental revenue from our mobile subscriber base, which in Q2 increased to 78.6 million — a level was last seen in 2019 prior to the pandemic," Vyacheslav added.
In Q2 2021 Russia mobile service revenue increased 5.3% year-over-year to reach RUB 85.5 bn for the quarter, it said.
The country's three-month active mobile subscribers notched upward by more than 230,000 quarter-on-quarter (+0.3%) to 78.6 m — reaching a level last seen in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The MTS retail network footprint remained essentially stable standing at 5,338 owned/ franchised stores in Russia at quarter-end.
