Orange and Connex Run Neck-and-Neck

Connex was the mobile phone service provider leading on the Romanian market, until yesterday, when competitor Orange announced it had 1,602 more clients.

Both companies released these days their financial data, with Connex saying yesterday it had 4,369,745 subscribers at the end of September, while Orange saying three days before that it had 4,371,347 subscribers. At the end of June, Orange Romania reported 3,957 million subscribers, with a 52.8% increase from the first semester a year before, while Connex reported 4,089 million subscribers, which was a 48.9% increase from the same period last year.

Orange Romania estimates its revenues this year will reach 772 million dollars, that is 46% higher than those in December 2003, said Richard Moat, the new general manager. "For the first nine months the revenues of the Romanian subsidiary reached 549 million dollars, which is 47% higher than the revenues same time last year," said Moat. Also, the operational profit of Orange, that is before subtracting the costs (EBITDA), will reach 400 million dollars by year-end. The EBITDA index was 296 million dollars by the end of September, as compared to 197 million dollars same time last year.

For its part, MobiFon, the mobile phone service operator of Connex, reported 493.4 million dollars in revenues at the end of September, which was 28.4% higher than the same time last year. "In the past 12 months the company attracted 1.4 million clients, of whom one million are customers who use the pre-paid cards and spend less than the exiting clientele," showed the report of Telesystem International Wireless (TIW), the owner of MobiFon.

The operational profit (OIBDA) rose to 260.1 million dollars in the first nine months, which was 21.8% higher than the same period last year. The ratio of the OIBDA against the revenues dropped to 52.7%, compared to 55.6% last year, and was due to higher costs in attracting new customers and kolding on the major ones.