OREANDA-NEWS. Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd. (SSTL), which operates its telecom services under the MTS brand in India, today announces its unaudited consolidated financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2013.

Key Financial & Operational Highlights for the Fourth Quarter and for FY 2013

Consolidated revenues increased by 5.3% Q-o-Q to INR 2,996 million (USD 48 million), however for the full year declined to INR 12,270 million (USD 209 mn) due to reduced operating footprint.

Blended mobile ARPU for the quarter increased by 2.8% to INR 97 (USD 1.65) on account of increase in minutes of usage following improved quality of customer base.

Minutes of usage increased by 2.9% to 373 during the quarter (Q-o-Q).

Success of SSTL's data strategy is evident with non-voice revenues contributing 34.5% of total quarterly revenues, the highest in the industry.

SSTL rolled out its 3GPLUS Telecom Network (EV-DO Rev.B Phase II) across all its 9 circles of operations. Customer offering included launch of MBlaze Ultra dongle with speeds of upto 9.8 Mbps.

SSTL's HSD services now cover over 550 towns across 9 circles.

The Company's data card subscriber base for the quarter increased by 11% to 1.34 million subscribers.

The Company recorded its lowest full year OIBDA loss in the last four years. Consolidated OIBDA loss for the quarter and year stands at INR 2,081 million (USD 33 million) and INR 8,584 million (USD 147 million), respectively. Yearly OIBDA margins improved 19 p.p.

According to Dmitry Shukov, Chief Executive Officer of Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd, "During the quarter all our operational parameters have improved, which in turn resulted in revenue growth of 5.3% Q-o-Q. Given that we had launched our 3G Plus network in the latter part of Q4 2013, we expect the trend of revenue improvement to continue."