Beeline progress ‘back in track’

[PHNOM PENH POST]

THE Chief Executive Officer of VimpelCom, the majority-owner of Beeline, was “encouraged” by its fourth quarter results in Cambodia despite extending its Southeast Asian losses for a second successive quarter. The company made a loss of US$9.8 million in its mobile operations in Cambodia and Vietnam, before depreciation and amortization, in the fourth quarter of last year.

That compares to a loss of $8.8 million in the third quarter and $8.1 million loss in the second quarter of 2010.

Revenues, however, grew around 38 percent to $6.9 million in quarter four, from $5 million in quarter three.

Active subscribers in the region were said to have hit 651,000 while average revenue per user hit $3.8 – the highest in any quarter of last year.

VimpelCom CEO Alexander Izosimov said that in Cambodia “we managed to reverse the negative trends” and that “at year end, the development of our business in Cambodia was back in track,” according to a transcript of a conference call posted online by Seeking Alpha.

He also pointed to its limited relations in Vietnam, stating that it intended to “re-launch” in the country.

Meanwhile, Izosimov highlighted the recent acquisition of Millicom Laos which he said has helped in “extending our footprint in South East Asia and completing what we intended to do i.e. creating clusters in the Indo-China peninsula”.

Gael Campan, General Director of Beeline in Cambodia, did not reply to a request for comment yesterday.

Globally, VimpelCom – which has agreed a purchase of Wind Telecom SpA - said profit rose 63 percent in the fourth quarter as it added subscribers and consolidated units. Net income advanced to $461 million from $283 million a year earlier, VimpelCom said in a statement. Sales gained 22 percent to $2.82 billion.