Last update: 28.11.2024 12:32 (GMT+2)
EESTI TELEKOM
CORRECTIVE ANNOUNCEMENT
CORRECTION TO THE PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF 2001, EEK
In previously discloused announcement there was a mistake
in the number of post-paid customers of AS EMT.
The correct number is 255,7 thousand post-paid customers
not 225.7 thousand as discloused earlyer.
Corrected announcement follows.
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EESTI TELEKOM
COMMENTARY TO FINANCIAL RESULTS
THE PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF 2001, EEK
7 February 2002
THE PRELIMINARY FINANCIAL RESULTS OF 2001
‘The first year in full competition’
Eesti Telekom, the leading provider of telecommunication
services in Estonia, today announces its results for the
financial year ending 31 December 2001.
Financial highlights
2001 2000
Gain/loss
%
Total revenues, mEEK 4,285 3,973 8
EBITDA, mEEK 1,937 2,078 -7
EBITDA margin, % 45 52
EBIT, mEEK 795 1,109 -28
EBIT margin, % 19 28
Profits before taxes, 818 1,097 -25
mEEK
Net profits for the 787 1,122 -30
period, mEEK
EPS, EEK 5.73 8.17 -30
No. of A- shares 137,383,178 137,383,178
Investments*), mEEK 969 1,268 -23
Net gearing, % -9.0 -6.9
*) excl. purchase of commercial papers
Commenting on these financial results, Chairman Jaan
Männik stressed the following: “In 2001, the Estonian
Telekom group proved its adaptability – to deal with the
changes in the market environment, to go along with
technological innovations, and to comply with the
diversifying needs of its customers.”
For further information, please contact:
Krister Björkqvist +372 6 272 465
CFO
Hille Võrk +372 6 272 460
Financial Manager
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT
The year 2001 was a complicated and challenging one for
the Eesti Telekom group. The market opened up for full
competition, so that, especially during the first half of
the year, we had to act under the extremely strong price
pressure created by the new entrants. At the same time,
the regulatory environment was in continuous change,
resulting in the implementation to several new
limitations for the dominant market operators. Now, at
the beginning of 2002, I would say that we successfully
faced all the challenges that we were confronted with,
and much more stability is expected from the coming year.
In addition to dealing with our competitors, and adapting
to regulations, several new technological developments
were introduced. GPRS was launched into commercial use.
Penetration of ADSL lines rose above the Western European
average. Both operators of the group launched several
new, innovative services in traditional, as well as new
service areas. Co-operation with domestic and foreign
telecommunication and media companies has allowed
expansion of our activities into areas outside
traditional telecommunications, which is very important,
taking into account the limited size of the Estonian
market.
Revenues, expenses, and profits
In 2001, consolidated revenues of the Eesti Telekom Group
amounted to 4,285 mln EEK, showing a rise of 8%, compared
to the year 2000. EBITDA of the Group was 1,937 mln EEK,
down by 7 % with an EBITDA margin of 45%. Operating
expenses grew by 24%, compared to the year 2000, to 2,347
mln EEK. Net profit of the Eesti Telekom Group in 2001
amounted to 787 mln EEK, showing a fall of 30 %. Earnings
per share were 5.73 EEK. The consolidated financial
results have been influenced by several unusual factors:
Ų An insolvent company, OÜ Albufent, had filed a
lawsuit against AS Eesti Telefon in the amount of 55 mln
EEK. On 6 February 2001, OÜ Albufent submitted an
application to the Tallinn City Court to unconditionally
drop the claim against AS Eesti Telefon. On 19 February
2001, the Tallinn City Court issued a decree ending the
proceedings in the aforementioned case. But over the
years, AS Eesti Telefon had built up a monetary reserve,
amounting to 46 mln EEK, to deal with this claim. Since
the case was dismissed, the company was now able to
release this sum through the profit and loss account.
Ų On 11 April 2001, AS Eesti Telefon concluded an
agreement for the sale of shares to Eniro Eesti AS. In
accordance with the agreement, AS Eesti Telefon sold its
60% of AS Teabeliin to Eniro Eesti AS, a subsidiary of
Eniro AB. The sales price of the shares was 43.5 mln EEK.
The capital gain from the transaction, in the amount of
32 mln EEK, is accounted as revenue from subsidiaries.
Ų In accordance with IAS 12, the principles of
accounting for the income tax calculated on dividends
have changed. Until now, income tax on dividends was
subtracted from the retained profits. Starting in 2001,
the tax is accounted through the profit and loss account.
To ensure accurate comparability, the financial
statements for 2000 have been adjusted accordingly.
Ų New interconnection agreements concluded at the
beginning of 2001, between Eesti Telefon and mobile
operators, have had significant influence on the total
revenues and expenses of both the Eesti Telefon Group and
the EMT Group.
Ų Following first year of competition Eesti Telefon
has reviewed its assets under IAS 36 and made a 100 mln
EEK write-off.
The year 2001 was a challenging one for AS Eesti Telefon,
the fixed line operator of the Group. The fixed
communications market became wide open for competition on
1 January 2001. Several other operators entered the
market, causing a significant reduction in international
calls tariffs. However, AS Eesti Telefon faced the
challenge by making its tariffs more flexible, with the
introduction of bonus packages, and with various other
promotional activities. In the middle of the year, the
rate of the tariff reductions slowed down, and market
shares of Eesti Telefon stabilised. At the end of
December 2001, the company estimated its market share of
total call minutes, domestic call minutes, and mobile
minutes to be 91%, 90%, and 75% respectively. Eesti
Telefon estimated its market share of international call
minutes to be 70%. Another step for maintaining customers
was taken in January 2002. New price-packages were
introduced, which allow customers with different
communication needs to choose between different
combinations of monthly fee and minute tariffs, thus
optimising their expenditures on communications.
AS Eesti Telefon does not want to limit its activities
with traditional voice communications. Several new
services were launched in 2001. Eesti Telefon has made a
powerful entry into the rental services and IT solutions
market. Based on the ASP (Applications Service Provider)
business model, the company offers analytical software
Atlas Oraakel, communication and teamwork solution Atlas
Maestro, Internet-based time-scheduling application Atlas
E-administrator, equipment hosting service Atlas Tele-
hotel, rental space for video and audio records Atlas
Real-Time, Web-based accounting software rental service
B24, rental of e-shopping applications, IP-based voice
communication solutions, and call-handling systems.
During year 2001, Eesti Telefon started co-operation with
several foreign partners: Wicom Communications, SAS,
Microsoft, Infonet.
Among the main revenue categories of AS Eesti Telefon,
domestic call revenues grew by 1%, revenues from mobile
communications by 17%, and dial-up revenues by 21%,
compared to 2000. Revenues from data communications and
Internet connections grew by 144%. Revenues from
international calls fell by 46%, and main line revenues
by 6%.
To increase its efficiency, Eesti Telefon has also
reviewed its cost structure. As a result, the decision
was made to sell 17 office buildings and technical
facilities with a total area of 21,500 square metres.
Most of these premises were analog exchange premises,
which had become obsolete as a result of digitalisation.
Also, the current head-office of the company will be put
up for sale. Eesti Telefon expects to save 5 mln EEK per
year by cutting operating expenses with this sale.
In order to promote higher efficiency, and to be able to
concentrate on its main activities, Eesti Telefon turned
over all its customer service activities to Hallo!, a
chain store belonging to AS Telefonipood, a 100%
subsidiary of Eesti Telefon. At the same time, the number
of Eesti Telefon customer service centres doubled to 39.
The number of employees of AS Eesti Telefon fell to 1,552
by the end of the year 2001 (December 2000:2,379).
The consolidated total revenues of the Eesti Telefon
group in 2001 amounted to 2,872 mln EEK, a rise of 7 %,
compared to the year 2000. The increase in
interconnection revenue amounted to 204 mln EEK.
Operating expenses of the group rose by 30 %, to 1,989
mln EEK, of which, interconnection expenses amount to 430
mln EEK. The EBITDA and the net profit of the Eesti
Telefon group were 883 mln EEK and 49 mln EEK
respectively, down by 24 % and 88 %.
A survey of the Estonian Communications Board shows that
by the end of 2001, mobile penetration in Estonia had
reached 52%. The same source estimated AS EMT’s (the
mobile operator of the Eesti Telekom Group) market share
to be 54%. AS EMT itself reported its number of clients
at the end of 2001 to be 382.7 thousand. The net growth
in the number of customers in 2001 was 54.3 thousand. By
the end of December 2001, the company had 127 thousand
prepaid customers (net growth of 18.6 thousand) and 255.7
post-paid customers (net growth of 35.7 thousand).
Monthly ARPU in 2001 was 452 EEK per customer (449 EEK
per customer in 2000).
An important development in 2001 was the launch of GPRS.
The feedback from customers has been positive. Also,
several new value added services became available for the
operator’s customers. With the orientation to younger
customers, co-operation was started with several Internet
portals and TV channels. It became possible for customers
to load logos or sounds from the Internet, send SMS from
a portal, or to a TV SMS-chat. M-parking and m-commerce
were developed further. EMT started to make it possible
for appliances to be remote controlled by mobile
telephone.
The total revenues of the EMT group amounted to 2,217 mln
EEK, up by 402 mln EEK or 22 %, of which, interconnection
revenues amount to 293 EEK. The operating expenses of the
EMT Group were 1,143 mln EEK, up by 273 mln EEK or 31 %,
of which, interconnection fees amount to 163 mln EEK. The
EBITDA of the group amounted to 1,074 mln EEK (a growth
of 14 %). The EBITDA margin reached 48%. The net profit
for the year was 765 mln EEK, up by 13 %, compared to the
year 2000.
Balance sheet and cash flow
At the end of December 2001, the total assets of the
Eesti Telekom group amounted to 4,243 mln EEK (December
2000: 4,621 mln EEK). There has been a reduction in both
long term and short term debt obligations. In July 2001,
AS Eesti Telekom repurchased one-year bonds in the total
amount of 100 mln EEK. AS Eesti Telekom made loan
repayments, both scheduled and pre-scheduled. At the end
of 2001, the net gearing of the Eesti Telekom group was
–9.0%.
The net operating cash flow was strong, amounting to
1,736 mln EEK. The total cash flow of the group was –206
mln EEK. The negative total cash flow resulted from
financial outflows in the total amount of 982 mln EEK
(incl. dividend payouts of 756 mln EEK) and investing
activities in the total amount of 960 mln EEK.
Investments
In 2001, the Eesti Telekom group invested, excluding
investments into commercial papers, 969 mln EEK in 2001
(24% less than in 2000). The Eesti Telefon group invested
508 mln EEK, the EMT group 459 mln EEK. Resulting from
changes in the business environment, in 2001, Eesti
Telefon decreased its planned investments by 300 mln
EEK. The aim of this reduction was to increase the
profitability of investments. The main investments area
for Eesti Telefon was ADSL network. The majority of
investments made by EMT went into base stations,
exchanges, and IT systems.
The number of main lines per 100 inhabitants was 34.9 at
the end of December 2001 (December 2000: 35.9). In total,
501,691 Eesti Telefon main lines were in use in December
2001. The number of lines per employee was 321. The
digitalisation rate has reached 71.8% (December 2000:
71.2%). By the end of the year 17 thousand ADSL
connections were installed, or 1.2 connections per 100
inhabitants.
One of the most important investment areas for AS EMT was
GPRS. The GPRS network, as a commercial endeavour, was
launched on 1 July 2001. The service can be used
everywhere in Estonia where GSM is available. EMT intends
to support the development of GPRS in Estonia. In May, a
Mobile Applications Initiative Centre was opened at
Tallinn Technical University in co-operation with EMT.
The centre, the first of its kind in Estonia, is a mobile
communications testing environment ideal for personnel
training and product development. These facilities are
also suitable for designing new GPRS and UMTS networks.
Both subsidiaries of the Eesti Telekom group are also
supporting the development of the general
telecommunications environment in Estonia. On 16 February
2001, Eesti Telefon, EMT, and two major commercial banks
signed an agreement for the establishment of AS
Sertifitseerimiskeskus (Certification Centre Ltd.) The
centre will provide certification related services, based
upon the essential public infrastructure. By statute, the
centre will deal basically with certification and
timestamps. 12 mln EEK have been invested into the
founding of AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus, 3 mln EEK by each
participant in the project. At the beginning of 2002, the
Parliament of Estonia made electronic ID-cards compulsory
for all Estonian residents, which increased the
significance of the PKI project.
On 7 March 2001, several Estonian companies, including
Eesti Telefon and EMT, together with the government,
introduced the look@world project, aimed at promoting the
use of Internet, thereby improving the quality of life in
Estonia and the nation’s competitiveness in Europe. One
aim of the participants is to raise Internet penetration
of Estonia, in three years, to 74 %, thus surpassing
Finland. Both Eesti Telefon and EMT will invest 30 mln
EEK into the project during the next three years. Eesti
Telefon’s main contribution within the framework of the
project will be to give access to Internet services to as
many people as possible, irregardless of where they live,
or their income; establish a permanent Internet
connection for non-profit organisations at preferential
rates; develop an infrastructure needed for essential
consumer services and an Internet environment; and
support Internet training programs. EMT’s contribution
would be to provide access to Internet at all times and
everywhere, coordinate co-operation between the public
and private sectors, establish an innovation centre, and
support and promote info-technological schooling and
training programs.
An important investment project in 2002 will be UMTS. The
Ministry of Roads and Communications is preparing the
necessary legislation for issuing third generation mobile
phone service licenses. It is expected that four licenses
will be issued. The expected launch of the third
generation technology will be in 2003-2004.
Regulatory issues
2001 was the first year of full competition in the
Estonian telecommunications market. Numerous regulative
acts became effective and had to be implemented. Several
debates between operators and regulatory authorities rose
out of the different interpretations of the acts.
On 13 February 2001, the Estonian Parliament adopted an
amendment to the Telecommunications Act, which set the
upper limits for interconnection service fees (effective
until 31 December 2001) that the major operators could
charge. Eesti Telekom considered the stipulating of
limits for interconnection service fees (on top of a cost-
based pricing requirement) to be unjustified and unfair.
Eesti Telefon filed suit to overturn an 18 April ruling
of the Communications Board that forced Eesti Telefon to
reduce the interconnection service fees which Eesti
Telefon was charging other operators, so that the fees
would be in accordance with the amendment. Eesti Telefon
requested that the Communications Board ruling be
suspended for the duration of the case, which the Court
refused to do. On 10 December 2001, Tallinn
Administrative Court decided in favour of the
Communications Board. However, Eesti Telefon had already
started to implement the ruling, by discounting its cost-
based interconnection service fees. New interconnection
contracts had already been concluded with some operators.
On 21 December 2001, the Communications Board ordered AS
Eesti Telefon to lower the regional level interconnection
tariffs in 2002, so that they would be in accordance with
the Telecommunications Act and the methodology of
accounting the costs of an operator of a
telecommunications network as established by a decree of
the Government. Eesti Telefon will comply and lower the
tariffs by 1 cent.
On 1 April 2001, Eesti Telefon changed the classification
and tariffs of calls. As of that date, local and long
distance calls were replaced by national calls with
unitary tariffs. Following the recommendations of the
National Communications Board, methodologies for the
calculation of end-customer and interconnection costs
were unified. The same tariffs became effective for all
Estonian operators. The Competition Board reacted on 24
April 2001, by ruling that, in accordance with the
Competition Act, Eesti Telefon must cancel these new
tariffs. Lower tariffs were recommended by the
Competition Board for the service calculated on the basis
of justified pricing, traditional proportions between the
price-rise and the CPI growth rate, and acceptable return
on equity. The Competition Board filed a case against
Eesti Telefon in the Administrative Court. A fine of up
to 5% of annual net sales can be imposed for abuse of the
position of dominant market operator.
Eesti Telefon is of the opinion that the price between 14
and 34 cents for a call within the network is cost-based.
Eesti Telefon did not accept the complaint by the
Competition Board, and on 23 May 2001, took the case to
Tallinn Administrative Court. On 17 January 2002, Tallinn
Administrative Court decided in favour of Eesti Telefon,
and dismissed the Competition Board’s complaint.
On 13 November 2001, AS EMT was declared to be an
operator with significant market power in the general
mobile service market in 2002. EMT decided to contest the
Directive in court, because it found that the directive
was not in conformity with law. Along with the
administrative appeal, EMT also applied for suspending
the performance of the directive. Court satisfied the
application by its ruling of January 18, 2002, as it
considered EMT's application to be grounded. AS EMT was
not declared to be an operator with significant market
power in interconnection services market. On 26 November,
the Communications Board declared AS Eesti Telefon to be
an operator with significant market power, in 2002, in
the public telephone service market, public leased line
service market, and public interconnection service
market.
The Estonian Parliament has passed the implementation act
of the property statutes, which stipulate the right of
way issues for Eesti Telefon. At the moment, we have not
reserved any funds for the settlement of potential
landowners’ claims.
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of AS
Eesti Telekom took place 23 May 2001. The meeting
approved Annual Report 2000 and the allocation proposal
for the net profit. 12,421 thousand EEK were entered as
the mandatory reserve capital. It was decided that the
owners of A-shares be paid ordinary dividends of 4.00 EEK
per share (in total, 550 mln EEK, or 49% of the net
profit of 2000). Also, it was decided that an
“extraordinary dividends” payment of 1.50 EEK per share
(in total, 206 mln EEK) be made to the owners of A-
shares. The owner of B-share was entitled to 10,000 EEK
of the dividends. The rest of the accumulated net profit,
in the amount of 1,068,854 thousand EEK, was retained
undistributed.
The Annual General Meeting also authorised AS Eesti
Telekom to acquire, within one year (until 23 May 2002),
up to 5% of the A-series shares of AS Eesti Telekom. Up
until now, no shares have been re-acquired by AS Eesti
Telekom.
Hille Võrk
Financial Manager
6 272 460