OREANDA-NEWS. On 26 August 2008 was Rostelecom (NYSE: ROS; RTS and MICEX: RTKM, RTKMP), Russia’s national LD operator announced its unaudited results for January-June 2008 drafted to the Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Rostelecom’s first-half revenues remained largely unchanged against the same period a year ago and reached Rub 30,587.5 mln.

Rostelecom continues to ramp up earnings from datacom services, which translates into higher earnings from these services compared to the fixed-line services the Company provides.

In the reporting period, the operator’s DLD traffic decreased 0.9% y-o-y, DLD earnings decreased 4.2% to Rub 14,768.4 mln. Improving traffic and DLD revenue figures are mainly driven by the outflow of DLD traffic from fixed to mobile networks, changes in the structure of the fixed-line market and also the reduction of the tariff cap for telecom subscribers in accordance with the decision adopted by regulatory bodies.

Outgoing ILD traffic dropped 2.8%. ILD earnings derived from Russian clients amounted to Rub 5,840.2 mln, i.e. 7.5% below the year-earlier indicator. The contraction in ILD earnings is due to changes in the structure of outgoing ILD traffic.

ILD traffic from foreign operators jumped 9.4% compared with January-June 2007, which reflects Rostelecom’s stable positions on the international interconnect market. The company’s earnings from call termination and transit of incoming ILD traffic jumped 7.1% to Rub 2,764.7 mln in January-June 2008.

The company’s H108 revenues from other services increased 12% y-o-y to Rub 7,214.2 mln due to higher earnings from datacom and telematics services, the lease of telecom lines, intellectual network (IN) services and also maintenance services.

Datacom and telematics revenues soared 3.8 times in January-June 2008 to Rub 1,172.6 mln against the same period of 2007.

Intellectual network (IN) earnings surged 27.2% to Rub 618.3 mln.

The operator’s earnings from the lease of telecom lines grew 2.6% y-o-y to Rub 4,034 mln.

The company’s operating expenses amounted to Rub 24,272.5 mln, sliding 4.1% compared with the first half of 2007.

H108 depreciation charges totaled Rub 2,138.8 mln. A 14.2% increase in depreciation charges is attributable to the commissioning of a number of fixed assets in 2007.

OIBDA surged 15.6% y-o-y to Rub 8,453.8 mln. One of the factors that pushed up OIBDA was a reduction in the Company’s operating expenses, including following the cancellation of the compensatory surcharge since January 1, 2008. OIBDA margin stood at 27.6%.

In the first six months of 2008, operating profit totaled Rub 6,315 mln or 16.1% more than in the year-earlier period.

Other revenue and losses amounted to Rub 310.9 mln in H108 vs. Rub 833 mln a year earlier. This indicator declined owing to a number of financial investments in January-June 2008, a reduction of financial investments that are subject to revaluation and also due to negative exchange differences in the indicators for January-June 2008.

Rostelecom’s H108 net profit rose 6.2% to Rub 4,983.5 mln.