TP betters forecasts

TP, Poland's largest domestic telecom, has revealed better-than-expected sales and net profit figures for the first nine months of 2006. The telecom announced a 2.1-percent rise in its revenues, totaling zł.13.94 billion in contrast to a previous forecast of zł.13.82 billion. The news was greeted enthusiastically by investors and TP's share price leaped by 4.5 percent.

The firm, whose market value of around zł.28.8 billion makes it one of the WSE's largest stocks, also stated that its annual sales are set to increase by over one percent this year.

"These are excellent results in all business segments," said Krzysztof Kaczmarczyk, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities. "The new revenue forecast looks very realistic. They could easily post even two-percent growth in sales this year," he added.

TP surprised observers with its forecast upgrade. Earlier this year it warned that regulatory changes might interfere with profits and, indeed, Poland's new telecoms regulator has introduced changes designed to erode TP's sovereign market position. These include measures obliging TP to reduce its network access fees for independent operators. The telecom's results are largely due to the growth of Centertel, its mobile phone arm, whose revenues in the first nine months of 2006 surged 19 percent. TP's fixed-line telephony business, on the other hand, saw revenues slip almost six percent. (Reuters)