(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Norway's Telenor said its fourth-quarter profit more than tripled as it added new customers in emerging markets, particularly in Eastern Europe and in Asia.
Telenor said it earned 6.18 billion kroner ($999 million) in the fourth quarter, compared with 1.7 billion kroner ($277.8 million) a year ago. Sales rose 30% to 24.5 billion kroner ($3.95 billion) from 18.8 billion kroner ($3.06 billion).
The company said it expected sales to grow by 15% to 20% in 2007.
'Our consistent strategy of investing in emerging markets combined with a strengthened position in the Nordic markets has led to such strong results,' the firm's CEO Jon Baksaas said as the company announced its results at the 3GSM Wireless conference. 'We expect the high underlying growth to continue in 2007.
'The number of subscriptions in our mobile operations increased by more than 30 million, reaching 115 million,' he added.
For the full year, the Fornebu, Norway-based company earned 15.9 billion kroner ($2.6 billion), more than doubling the 7.6 billion kroner ($1.24 billlion) in 2005.
Sales rose 37% to 91 billion kroner ($14.6 billion) from 66.6 billion kroner ($10.8 billion) a year earlier.
The company saw subscribers increase in markets like Ukraine, where the number of subscribers rose to 3.8 million and sales increased 36% to 3.02 billion kroner ($488.35 million).
© 2007 The Associated Press
© 2007 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved