CORRECTION Greece's OTE swings to FY net 574.6 mln eur, below mkt expectations

CORRECTION Greece's OTE swings to FY net 574.6 mln eur, below mkt expectations

	Published : Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:54 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Amending net figure in headline)

ATHENS (AFX) - Greek telecom incumbent Hellenic Telecomms (OTE) said it swung to a 2006 full-year group net profit of 574.6 mln eur on solid revenues, from a loss of 216.8 mln eur in 2005 due to its voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) charge that year.

This is well below median forecast that net profits would come in at 787.9 mln eur from a consensus poll by AFX News.

OTEs Board of Directors will propose a dividend of 0.55 eur per share.

Operating profit before depreciation and amortization came in at 2.218 bln eur.

Revenues were up 7.6 pct year on year to 5.891 bln eur, almost spot on AFX median forecasts of 5.885 bln eur.

But the company said that fourth quarter total fixed-line revenues decreased by 4.3 pct year on year to 657.7 mln eur.

RomTelecom, its 54 pct controlled unit, saw revenues for the fourth quarter slip 2.6 pct to 229.8 mln eur due to drop in traffic and subscribers as well as competition from cable operators.

For the full year, capital spending totaled 962.4 mln eur which was below the groups forecast of 1.2 bln eur.

At the end of 2006, the groups gross debt was up 33.4 pct year on year to 4.590 bln eur due to the acquisition of mobile and tech retailer Germanos by its mobile unit Cosmote.

Panagis Vourloumis, chairman and chief executive, said: 'Our performance in the last three months of the year, while not quite as strong as what we achieved in the previous quarter, underscores our continuing turnaround.

OTE said revenues will increase at an annual average growth rate of 6.5 pct for the period 2007-2009.

Source: Euro2day.gr NewsWire

skrekas@euro2day.gr

hjp/hjp

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