ST. PETERSBURG, May 3 (RIA Novosti, Olga Vtorova) - North-West Telecom (RTS: SPTL) said Wednesday its sales revenues in 1Q06 had fallen 2.2% on 1Q05 to 4.8 billion rubles ($176.2 million).
The company said its communications services earnings had dropped by 6.8% to 4.4 billion rubles ($161.5 million).
The communications operator, however, managed to increase its net profit 5.1% on the first quarter of 2005 to 670.1 million rubles ($24.6 million), mainly due to revenue from new services, which had grown by 52.1% to 361.4 million rubles ($13.3 million).
Expenditures in the first quarter of 2006 decreased by 12.1% to 3.3 billion rubles ($121 million).
"The reduced earnings and expenditures of North-West Telecom are mainly due to a change in the terms of providing intercity and long-distance communications services as part of the long-distance communications market's liberalization," the company said.
The company has been an agent of long-distance calls operators since January 1, 2006, and has had additional revenues from traffic initialization as well as commission.
North-West Telecom's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 1Q06 were more than 1.7 billion rubles ($62.4 million), a 12.9% increase year on year.
North-West Telecom, whose licensed territory covers all of the Northwestern Federal District with a population of 13.7 million, is part of telecoms giant Svyazinvest, which owns 39.5% of its stock.
The company's charter capital is 1.1 billion rubles ($40.4 million) and is divided into 880 million Ordinary and 250 million preference shares with a face value of 1 ruble.
