UMC And Kyivstar Report 3Q06 Results

Ukraine’s mobile telecommunication leaders showed significant increases in all parameters: sales grew 24% yoy for UMC (to USD 415 mln) and 43% yoy for Kyivstar (481 mln). Margins of EBITDA amounted 60% for Kyivstar and 56% for UMC (both grew 6pp compared to 3Q05). The only components which decreased were APRU: 9.1 for Kyivstar (10.5 a year ago) and 8.7 for UMC (10.8 a year ago). Combined, both operators occupy about 85% of the Ukrainian mobile market. Alexander Paraschiy: Despite the fact that competition on the Ukrainian mobile market is rising, both operators increased their profitability in 2006. This was reached by offering a larger share of additional service provisions (data services, content provision). Note that the APRU of mobile leaders is now lower than the average revenue per line of Ukrtelecom (UTEL: BUY) which stood at USD 10.4 in 3Q06.