MBT - Mobile TeleSystems gains 3.5% as mobile service pulls off growth

Mobile TeleSystems (MBT) is up 3.5% after fourth-quarter earnings where it easily cleared revenue expectations thanks to Russian mobile service growth. Revenues jumped 7.4% to 133.7B rubles, and adjusted OIBDA ticked up 1.3%, to 52.5B rubles. Operating profit declined by 5.2%, though, to 26.1B rubles. Russian mobile service revenue accelerated to 6.4% growth in Q4 despite headwinds in international roaming revenue. In operating metrics, it added about 230,000 active mobile subscribers compared to the third quarter. "Our core telecom business saw top-line growth in both wireless and wireline segments," says CEO Alexey Kornya. "In our new verticals, we saw surging acceleration in key performance indicators. In Fintech, net interest income at MTS Bank was up by 32% year-over-year. In Media, we gained 1.5 million new OTT users - more than the total we had at the beginning of the year. And in B2B, we grew our IoT subscriber base by

For further details see:

Mobile TeleSystems gains 3.5% as mobile service pulls off growth