OREANDA-NEWS. On 05 August 2008 was announced, that CenterTelecom OJSC released its financial results for the first half of 2008 in accordance with Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Characteristics of operational efficiency:

The number of telecommunications lines per employee rose 30.7% to 166.02 lines (127 lines for 1H 2007).

Revenue per line rose 2.7% from RUR2,346.41 in 1H 2007 to RUR2,408.69  in 1H 2008.

Revenue per employee for 1H 2008 reached RUR399,880 or 33.8% more than in 1H 2007 (RUR298,800).

Personnel numbers were reduced by 22.1% to 41,075 employees (52,730 in 1H 2007)

Profitability calculated from net profit reached 12.29% in 1H 2008 against 11.26% in 1H 2007.

The number of users of ADSL under the DOMOLINK brand rose 43.87% in 1H 2008 to 437,372 users (against 304,000 as of 31 Dec., 2007). The proportion of income attributable to Internet access services rose to 10.69% (against 7.05% in 1H 2007).

Number of main telephone sets put into operation as of 1 July, 2008 increased 1.5% in comparison with 1 July, 2007 reaching 6,678,220 units (6,579,237 units as of 1 July, 2007).

In 1H 2008, implementation of the “calling party pays” policy provided growth of income from inter-zone communications by 10.55%, reaching RUR3.071 billion (RUR2.778 billion in 1H 2007).

The 44.66% increase in other expenses in 1H 2008 against 1H 2007 is related to the redistribution of expenses for transportation services under CenterTelecom’s program for business process restructuring, and also to charges to the non-governmental pension fund and expenses related to agency services.

The increase in rental payment allocation is mainly as a result of lease payments associated with CenterTelecom's implementation of a major universal telecommunications service program in Russia's Central Federal District. According to Russia's current legislation, relevant expenses of the company in connection with universal service expansion will be reimbursed from the Russian Federation's Universal Telecommunications Service Fund.