By Alkman Granitsas
ATHENS-Greek telephone operator Hellenic Telecommunications
Organization SA (HTO.AT, DT), Greece's incumbent phone company,
Thursday said its losses widened in the fourth quarter after taking
nearly a quarter of a billion euro charge to pay for its latest
voluntary retirement scheme, a core part of its ongoing
cost-cutting efforts.
In a statement, the company--also known as OTE--said that net
losses in the three months to end-December 2013, had risen to 188.7
million euros ($259.2 million) from a net loss of EUR57.7 million a
year earlier. Revenue was marginally higher at EUR1.045
billion-versus EUR1.044 billion-with the overall results weighed
down by an estimated EUR240 million charge for the retirement
plan.
"For the OTE Group, 2013 was a year of significant achievements,
enabling us to look at the future with confidence despite the
difficult conditions we face in all our markets," said Chief
Executive Michael Tsamaz. "Our early retirement plans were adopted
by over 1,800 OTE employees in Greece, bringing total departures in
our Greek and Romanian fixed-line operations to nearly 8,000 since
the end of 2009, durably reducing our cost base and enhancing our
competitiveness." Mr. Tsamaz pointed to the slight increase in
revenue--the first quarterly increase in five years-as a sign of
the company's improved operating performance.
Once Greece's state-owned telephone monopoly, OTE continues to
dominate the country's local telecom market and is a leading player
in southeast Europe, but is now 40% owned by German telco giant
Deutsche Telecom AG (DTE.XE). The German company, which released
its own consolidated earnings earlier Thursday, has recently
indicated it is interested in acquiring the roughly 10% stake in
OTE still owned by the Greek government.
Since 2008, DT has spent about EUR4 billion building up its
position in OTE, paying top dollar--close to 30 euros a share--with
its first purchases in the Greek carrier. Since then, OTE's shares
have tumbled in line with Greece's broader stock market, trading at
only a fraction of their former price.
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