Telecoms firms have many nonpayers
Despite the fact that Greece appears to be over the worst of the financial crisis, telecoms firms are still suffering from negligent payers.
Total nonpayments are expected to be around 100 million euros this year, as was the case in previous years.
Accumulated nonpayments in December 2018 stood at 1.2 billion euros, only slightly lower than the 1.29 billion at end-2017.
This despite the fact that Greece’s three main operators, Cosmote, Vodafone and Wind, set up a database of delinquent payers two years ago.
Cosmote accounts for 65 percent of the accumulated nonpayments.
Despite these problems, OTE, also a landline operator, posted a 1.7 percent rise in second-quarter core profit on Thursday as a recovery in its home market helped offset poor performance at its Romanian operations.
The former national monopoly, 45 percent owned and managed by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 321.9 million euros in Q2, up from 316.4 million euros a year earlier.
In Greece, where the economy has been recovering after a crippling debt crisis, adjusted EBITDA increased by 4.7 percent.
[Kathimerini/Reuters]
