Telecom

The consulting company Ostrov has assessed 92.79% of the shares owned by the state at UAH 10.5751 bln, which amounts to 0.609 UAH per share. An independent valuation of the company`s shares exceeds the starting price of Ukrtelecom by UAH 75 mln. The State Property Fund has already turned to the only bidder for privatization of the state-owned stake – the ESU company– with a proposal to purchase the package at the price proposed by a third-party consulting firm.

The total earnings of the telecommunication sector in Ukraine increased by 2.6% in December to UAH 4.1 bln. This represented a cumulative growth of 2.5% y-o-y for the full 2010 year. Mobile segment earnings in 2010 rose by 1.3% y-o-y, while the fixed line segment slid 6.9% y-o-y. The mobile segment share declined to 60.8% in 2010 versus 61.5% in 2009, while the fixed line segment share dropped to 17.3% in 2010 from 19% in 2009. The computer segment showed the biggest gain in 2010, inching up by 26% y-o-y, and its share increased to 8.9% in 2010 from 7.3% in 2009.

Yesterday the Cabinet announced Ukrtelecom’s privatization price of UAH 10.5 bln for the State stake of 92.8%. The telecom giant will be sold on December 28.

Yesterday the Cabinet announced Ukrtelecom’s privatization price of UAH 10.5 bln for the State stake of 92.8%. The telecom giant will be sold on December 28.

Yesterday, the Government approved full privatization of the Ukraine’s largest fixed line operator, Ukrtelecom. The auction is expected to happen by the end of the year.

The National Communications Regulation Commission (NCRC) announced the date of the UMTS (3G) license sale for the 25MHz bandwidth channel. The tender will take place on November 30. The opening bid the for license will be UAH 400 mln (USD 47 mln.), with bid increments of UAH 20 mln. (USD 2.4 mln.).

Ukraine’s state telecommunication company, Ukrtelecom [UTLM UZ, U/R], recorded a net profit of UAH 57.5 mln in 2Q09, compared to the results in 2Q08 when the company received a net loss of UAH 4.34 mln. Net sales increased by 0.7% YoY to UAH 1,615 bln.

According to the State Statistics Committee, telecommunication revenue decreased by 0.9% YoY in 1H09 to UAH22.1 bln. Revenue from urban and rural fixed line services increased by 3.8% YoY and 2.1%YoY respectively or overall by 3.7% YoY, revenue from internet services grew by 26.8%YoY, revenue from domestic long distance (DLD) and international long distance (ILD) dropped 19.2 YoY. Revenue from the mobile segment decreased by 2.8% YoY to UAH 13.6 bln. mainly due to a drop in retail spending on mobile services.

According to IKS-Consulting monthly statistics, the number of Ukrtelecom [UTLM UZ, U/R] mobile users increased by 4.4% MoM to 289.7 thsd clients in June 2009.The overall number of mobile users in the market decreased by a meager 0.5% to 54.8 mln. customers. The level of penetration decreased by 0.4% to 119.2%.

NCRC forbids using zero tariffs for mobile operators: NEUTRAL.