Russia’s MTS mobile operator posts profit rise, ups guidance, Telecom News, ET Telecom

MOSCOW: Russia’s biggest mobile operator MTS on Thursday reported a 46.5% net profit jump to 17.2 billion roubles ($232.06 million) in the second quarter and raised its full-year revenue guidance to high single-digit growth.

MTS is one of several Russian companies developing services beyond its core business. President and CEO Vyacheslav Nikolaev said non-core segments – fintech, retail, media, cloud and digital – contributed more than half of revenue growth year-on-year.

“MTS Bank in particular has now achieved sufficient scale to become an engine of profitability for the group as a whole,” Nikolaev said in a statement.

The bank added around 100,000 customers in the quarter and posted net profit of 3.4 billion roubles for the first half of 2021, versus a 0.9 billion rouble loss in the same period last year, MTS said.

Second-quarter revenue was up 10.6% to 128.6 billion roubles. The company said it expects adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) to rise by at least 5% this year, up from a previous forecast of 4% growth.

Adjusted OIBDA was 10.2% higher at 57.2 billion roubles in the second quarter.

MTS confirmed its 2021 capex guidance of between 100-110 billion roubles. It said Russian legal requirements that telecom operators store certain data for up to six months meant it would need to spend around 50 billion roubles on data storage systems between H2 2018 and H1 2023.