ECONOMY

In Brief

OTE’s third-quarter profit beats estimates Greece’s largest telecoms company OTE yesterday reported a strong rise in third-quarter earnings, above consensus, helped by increased mobile take-up and ADSL Internet connections. OTE is starting to see dividends from its purchase and full consolidation of mobile arm Cosmote, as increasing profit from mobile telephony counters falling domestic fixed-line revenues, hit by increased competition from alternative operators. OTE, partly owned by Deutsche Telekom, increased net profit 29.5 percent to 201.3 million euros ($261.5 million). Analysts were forecasting net profit of 186 million euros on average. «Resilient top line and healthy profitability in the quarter were largely driven by our continued outperformance in mobile, where all key operating units posted good revenue growth,» OTE Chief Executive Panagis Vourloumis said in a statement. OTE earlier this year completed a buyout of Cosmote for about 2.8 billion euros as part of plans to take full advantage of mobile telephony growth in the region. OTE is present in Bulgaria, Romania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania. (Reuters) PPC seen showing loss due to high costs The Public Power Corporation (PPC) is expected today to post a second consecutive third-quarter loss due to high production costs and expensive electricity imports. PPC is expected to post a loss of 118 million euros compared to a loss of 39 million euros a year ago, according to the average estimate of four analysts polled by Reuters. PPC’s sales are seen up 18 percent at 1.61 billion euros, boosted by increased tariffs after the government allowed the utility to raise some rates for industrial users and other customers to help offset rising oil prices. But the rises will not have been enough to offset increased energy production costs due to persistently high oil prices. The firm had also imported expensive electricity from abroad after a dry winter led to a sharp drop in hydroelectric reserves at home. «We expect losses on the bottom line… as higher oil prices and increased energy imports, to meet high demand in the third quarter, affected… the group’s financial performance,» said Euroxx Securities analyst Vassilis Tsopanas. (Reuters) Nuclear energy Turkey will make a decision by the end of this year on the tender to build the country’s first nuclear power plant, Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said yesterday. Officials are studying a proposal from Russia’s ZAO Atomstroyexport, the sole bidder in the September auction, and will make a ruling on the process before the end of the year, Guler said in Ankara in televised comments. The September tender was for a contract to build a nuclear power station on the country’s Mediterranean coast. Turkey is also preparing to invite bids for a second plant on the northern Black Sea coast, Guler said. Turkey is accelerating plans for nuclear and wind power in a bid to reduce its dependence on imported fuel and prepare for increasing power demand. (Bloomberg) Naspers Africa’s largest media company, Naspers Ltd, said profit more than doubled after it sold its pay-TV unit in Greece and Cyprus and added subscribers elsewhere. Net income rose to 3.56 billion rand ($357 million), or 9.48 rand a share, in the six months through September, from 1.45 billion rand, or 4.11 rand, a year earlier, the company said. (Bloomberg)

Subscribe to our Newsletters

Enter your information below to receive our weekly newsletters with the latest insights, opinion pieces and current events straight to your inbox.

By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.