Megafon posts 1Q 2011 Net Income of 10.09 billion roubles

Russia mobile operator, Megafon, has posted a 1Q 2011 Net Income of 10.09 billion Roubles under IFRS.

The bottom line is down 1.9% from 10.28 billion rouble net profit posted for 1Q 2010 with OIBDA up 11.1% to 23.8 billion roubles on the back of 18% rise in revenues to 55.156 billion roubles The company attributed the result to an increase in depreciation expenses related to fixed assets put into use at the end of 2010. The decrease in revenue and operating income in the first quarter of 2011 resulted in a 20.3% decrease in net income quarter on quarter.  At the same time revenue from data transfer services continued to grow.Sergey Soldatenkov, Chief Executive Officer of MegaFon, highlighted he stable growth and major improvements in the carrying capacity of the European part of Megafon’s system.“The first quarter results have shown that MegaFon is holding on to the positive trends of last year: revenues from data transfer services continue showing stable growth. To a large extent this was possible due to the ongoing modernization of the old networks and development of the new ones. Maximum capacity of Russian segment of the European transportation network is now 500 Gbit/sec and maximum capacity of the foreign segment is 40 Gbit/sec.  The quarter results confirm that the Company has chosen the right strategy by focusing on data transfer services.”