OREANDA-NEWS. On 03 June 2009 Rostelecom (NYSE: ROS; RTS and MICEX: RTKM, RTKMP), Russia’s national LD operator, released its unaudited financial results for January-March 2009 drafted to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS).

Despite crisis trends in the first quarter of 2009 the company managed to improve its financial indicators.

Rostelecom’s Q109 revenue totaled Rub 15.37 bln.

By continuing to diversify business in an aggressive manner, in the first quarter of 2009 Rostelecom managed to lift the portion of revenue from value-added services in its revenue mix. The percentage of earnings derived from datacom and intellectual network services doubled y-o-y to 10.2%.

ILD traffic coming from foreign operators climbed 12.9% y-o-y to 846.2 mln minutes, which underscores Rostelecom’s stable position on the international interconnect market. Revenue from calls terminated in Russia and transiting ILD local voice traffic jumped by 29% year on year to Rub 1.71 bln.

Rostelecom’s revenue from value-added and additional services, including datacom, telematics, line lease and intellectual network, rose by 19% in January-March 2009 to Rub 4.20 bln, whereas datacom and telematics profit soared 2.7- fold y-o-y to Rub 1.29 bln.

Rostelecom’s operating expenses totaled Rub 13.08 bln, representing an 11.1% leap compared to the first quarter of 2008 and the main reason behind higher expenses was the fact that Rostelecom paid more to international operators following foreign exchange fluctuations and a jump in ILD transit traffic.

The LD provider’s OIBDA amounted to Rub 3.37 bln and OIBDA margin came in at 22%, overshooting the target by 1.1%.

Q109 operating profit totaled Rub 2.28 bln.

Revenue from other operations skyrocketed 125% to Rub 197.6 mln in January-March 2009 compared to Rub 87.9 mln in the year-earlier period on the heels of a jump in net interest income, contracting losses from the revaluation of financial investments and also due to positive foreign exchange rate differences by the end of the reporting period opposed to negative numbers in the first quarter of 2008.

Rostelecom’s Q109 net profit amounted to Rub 1.98 bln.