Lucic announced that he expects that the trend of income and profitability growth will continue this year as well.
A good development strategy significantly increased the revenues and profits of Telekom Serbia in 2020, and the main drivers of financial results were multimedia with an increase of 22 percent and the Internet, where the result was 13 percent higher, said the general director of that company, Vladimir Lucic. He announced that he expects that the trend of income and profitability growth will continue this year as well.
He pointed out that the acquisitions that Telecom had in the past period were an excellent business move.
– We have consolidated the market, we have taken over companies that have already generated a profit, achieved significant synergy effects, and we have made the position of Telecom dominant in Serbia, BiH and Montenegro – said Lucic.
He stated that in 2020, an exceptional growth in the number of Internet and multimedia users was made.
– The number of users increased by eight and 12 percent, respectively, among all members of the Telekom Group – said Lucic.
He stated that Telecom’s credit indebtedness was reduced in the second half of 2020, because part of it was transformed by the successful issuance of corporate bonds.
He added that more than 80 percent of loans are from large European banks, at favorable interest rates and conditions.
He added that the existing trends show that the profit in 2021 will be over 84 million euros and EBITDA far above 430 million euros, and assessed that this shows that Telecom has chosen an excellent development path.
Lucic stated that Telecom has a total of over 2.6 million internet and TV users, and the goal is to have only TV users over two million.
He added that thanks to the development, he can claim that the value of Telekom Serbia will reach four billion euros in 2022.
Lucic confirmed that he is the author of the idea that Telecom should offer its optics in wholesale, to its competition, which resulted in cooperation with Telenor, and assessed that he was unpleasantly surprised by the media expansion of that contract.
– The contract was made according to the best European practice. It is logical to give our infrastructure to another operator and make money because we have reached 50 percent of the market influence by building an optical network with 700,000 connections – said Lucic.
To the accusations that a cartel was made, he replied that he cannot be the leader of the cartel if the infrastructure is leased to a direct competitor.
– Cable operators were a cartel because they did not attack each other, and SBB, as the largest among them, had exclusively channels like Fox and they decided who they would give them to – said Lucic.
He also assessed that the media allegations that the government is behind the Euronews project – that business move of Telecom has been politicized.
– The large corporation Euronews, present in more than 160 countries, has chosen us as partners. That is a big part because it is a European brand and the strongest information channel in Europe, which is partly financed by the EU as well – said Lucic.
He added that as far as the influence of the authorities through Telecom on Euronews is concerned, that is impossible because the editor-in-chief is elected by the Euronews headquarters.
– We do not interfere in the editorial policy of Euronews at all. I think that everyone should be satisfied that such a brand coming to Serbia – said Lucic.
Asked whether the Law on Information, according to which state-owned companies cannot be media owners, was violated, he answered that Telekom is a joint stock company that acquired its own property by issuing shares.
– I emphasize that Telecom does not finance its business with funds from the state budget. Accordingly, the fact that the shares of Telekom Serbia are in state ownership is not important for the application of restrictions valid in the field of electronic media – he said.
Speaking of investments, Lucic emphasized that the construction of the optical network will continue, the quality of mobile telephony will be improved, and new digital services will be introduced, Srbija Danas reports.
