OREANDA-NEWS. Telecommunications and IT company TEO earned LTL 131.5 million of net profit in 2014. During the last quarter of 2014, the Company's revenue grew by 3.2 per cent, over the year the number of TEO smart TV users increased by 24 per cent, while revenue from IT services - by more than 10 per cent.

In 2014, the number of TEO customers using Internet, smart TV (IPTV) and IT services continued to grow rapidly. At the same time, customers' satisfaction indicators also improved. By the end of the year 2014, the total number of TEO Internet access service users exceeded half a million, and the number of users having fiber-optic Internet access increased by 11 per cent up to 201 thousand. Last year the number of IPTV users was growing the fastest since service was launched in 2006: it grew by 24 per cent and reached 131 thousand. Such growth was due to the IPTV service update, simplification of its usage, and the introduction of new free features.

"During the fourth quarter of 2014 revenue and EBITDA grew for the first time after the two years break. This is a result of successful and significant changes. The focus on the customer, a record growth of number of IPTV users, smart IT solutions for businesses, managed churn of voice telephony services and increased efficiency of business processes led to the turn of TEO financials to a positive direction", - Kęstutis Šliužas, General Manager of TEO, said.

In 2014, TEO revenue amounted to LTL 698.5 million, EBITDA margin reached 38.8 per cent, and net profit was LTL 131.5 million. EDITDA margin, excluding non-recurring expenses, stood at 41.1 per cent and was almost the same as a year ago.

TEO was increasingly offering effective IT solutions to Lithuanian businesses. In the second half of 2014, revenue from IT services provided to business customers for the first time exceeded that from voice telephony services provided to such customers. The Company's revenue from non-voice services increased by 5 per cent and for the first time in the fourth quarter exceeded 60 per cent of total revenue.

In the last quarter of 2014, the number of disconnected telephone lines was also the lowest over the last three years. During the same period, revenue from voice transit services increased by 43.1 per cent; over the whole year 2014 revenue from transit increased by 4.2 per cent. For the convenience of its customers, last year TEO opened an e-shop of household electronic equipment, which led to an increase in revenue from electronic equipment sales by more than three times.

In the middle of 2014, TEO changed its organizational structure and formed a new management team. In spite of non-recurring costs related to redundancy payments to employees during 2014, total operating expenses during the year remained unchanged and amounted to LTL 429 million.

In 2014, TEO allocated LTL 103.1 million for investments, the majority of which - 88 per cent or LTL 90.6 million went to the development of the next-generation fiber-optic access network and of the core network. As a result, by the end of December, TEO had 836 thousand households passed, or almost two thirds of the country's households, by the FTTH network.

Last year, the Company's share of revenue from Internet services from total amount of revenue amounted to 26.4 per cent, data communication services and network capacity sales - 11.3 per cent, IT services - 11 per cent, and from television services - 9 per cent.