As expected, 2023 will be historic in the positioning of this company on the world market
Also, in December, Telekom paid its shareholders dividends of as much as RSD 6.7 billion.
“In a very crisis year at the global level, we managed to increase dividends to our owners, the state of Serbia and small shareholders, compared to a year ago by almost two billion dinars. This is another proof that when Telekom wins, everyone wins,” said general manager of this Serbian giant, Vladimir Lucic.
The first man of Telekom Srbija is extremely satisfied with what was achieved in 2022. The enormous success is confirmed by concrete numbers: for the first time in its history, the company achieved revenue exceeding one billion euros, the number of TV users reached 1.2 million, and fixed Internet users 1.1 million, over 2,000 base stations were installed, while 1, 25 million households got access to optical internet.
“In the previous year, our development strategy of Telekom Srbija from the previous period was crowned, which was reflected in the acquisition of cable operators, the construction of an optical network and investments in content. From 2018 to today, revenues have increased by 35 percent, i.e. by the entire 31 billion dinars . The number of TV users has almost tripled, from 442,000 to 1.2 million. Also, although we invested a lot in investments, we managed to significantly increase dividends, from a very good 4.8 to as much as 6.7 billion dinars. Results in 2022. are excellent for us, and the year that has started will be even better,” explained Vladimir Lučić in a major interview for Večernje Novosti.
As he emphasized, among the main goals in 2023 are the continuation of strong income growth, the continuation of the intensive increase in the number of users, the continuation of building and strengthening of mobile and optical infrastructure, as well as the offer of new content and digital services. And all this is the basis for the next strategic goal – the international expansion of Serbian Telekom.
“The stability of our company’s growth in Serbia is important in order to realize our plans for international expansion. Our plans are ambitious, but realistic. It is completely clear that Telekom has outgrown the region and that it is time for the world game. This is important for Telekom, but also for the whole country. After many years, Serbia has a company that can fight on the world market. We are ready to cooperate with the biggest global brands. When I say we are ready, it is important to know that actually these multinational companies choose their partners and that they have extremely demanding criteria. We have done everything in our power to qualify for cooperation with the best, and we are extremely proud of that,” explained Vladimir Lučić.
The year ahead will be historic for the positioning of Telekom Srbija on the world market, and this will happen from three directions. The first direction, says Lučić, is the expansion of mobile networks in Western Europe and North America, where our diaspora is most numerous. In the course of 2022, mobile telephony was put into operation in North Macedonia, a company with branches in Switzerland was opened, while the ladder of 150,000 users was broken in Austria. Now it’s Germany’s turn, a huge and rich market with many of our people, and then the USA as the biggest step. The second direction is the development of multimedia content and the increase of income through the sale of such content to users, both through the international network of Telekom and through other providers, where the Arena Sport channels and the production of series and films and their sale on world markets will play a particularly important role.
The third direction is the development of digital services and their sale in the world, through the Fund for financing startups, which Telekom launched a year ago.
“I am absolutely convinced of the success of our strategy and that this year, among other things, we will achieve strategic cooperation with the world’s largest Internet giants. Also, the startups in which we invest through the TS Ventures fund, of which there are currently nine and there will be more, have global potential. Future revenues can be huge and be measured in hundreds of millions, if not billions of euros,” concluded Vladimir Lučić, B92 writes.
