Bosnia - BH Telekom financial results

Bosnia's BH Telekom posts FY net profit of $92 mln

Bosnia's largest telecommunications company, BH Telekom, posted a net profit of 143 million Bosnian marka ($92 million) in 2008, 4 percent up from the year before, preliminary figures showed on Monday.

The Sarajevo-based BH Telekom is the largest of Bosnia's three ethnically based telecoms and accounts for about a half of the Balkan country's market. It has 2 million clients in its fixed-line, mobile and internet services.

BH Telekom, which mostly operates in Muslim-dominated areas of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation, recorded revenues of 627.5 million marka last year, a 2 percent rise from 2007, spokeswoman Nadja Lutvikadic said.

The number of its ADSL subscribers in 2008 rose 130 percent to 50,480, in addition to nearly 30,000 dial-up subscribers, Lutvikadic said. BH Telekom has 1.45 million mobile network subscribers and 550,000 fixed-line subscribers.

Bosnia is made up of two autonomous regions -- the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic.

BH Telekom has been followed closely by Telekom Srpske, based and operating mostly in the Serb Republic, following its sell-off to the Serbian state telecoms company Telekom Srbije in late 2006.

Telekom Srpske posted a 66 percent rise in 2008 profit to 119.2 million marka, while its revenue rose 25 percent to 475 million marka.

HT Mostar, which operates mostly in Croat-dominated areas of the Muslim-Croat federation, has not yet disclosed its 2008 preliminary figures.

Officials have said they expect HT Mostar's revenues to grow by 10 percent from 2007.

State-controlled BH Telekom and HT Mostar are awaiting privatisation, pending parliament's approval of the sell-off strategy.