August 14 (SeeNews) - Digi Communications [BSE: DIGI], the majority owner of Romanian company RCS&RDS, said on Wednesday its net profit fell to 3.2 million euro ($3.59 million) in the first half of 2019, from 12.9 million euro in the same period of 2018.
Net finance costs rose to 41.5 million euro in the first six months of 2019, compared to 31.4 million euro in the like period of last year, Digi said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.
Total revenues grew 18% on the year to 575.2 million euro in the six months through June. Total operating expenses increased to 519.5 million euro, from 429.4 million euro.
Romanian operations contributed 63% of Digi's total revenue. They grew by 8.8% year-on year in the review period, reaching 367.2 million euro, primarily driven by higher telecommunication services prices.
"In recent months, we have taken important steps towards diversifying our offer for the Hungarian and Spanish markets. We launched mobile services in Hungary during the second quarter of this year and we continued to expand our coverage with fixed communication services in Spain," Digi Communications CEO Serghei Bulgac said.
"Regarding Romania, I would like to mention as an important milestone the launch of 5G services at the end of June in Bucharest, Constanta, Iasi and Oradea," Bulgac added.
Revenues in Hungary rose by an annual 37.3% to 110.4 million euro in the first half, while revenues from operations in Spain surged by 52.2% to 86.9 million euro.
RCS&RDS, founded by Romanian businessman Zoltan Teszari, comprises two companies - Romanian Cable Systems (RCS) founded in 1994, and Romanian Data Systems (RDS) founded in 1998. Its parent company, Cable Communication Systems, now Digi Communications N.V., indirectly operates telecommunications groups in Hungary, Spain and Italy through RCS&RDS.
Digi Communications' net profit fell to 21.4 million euro last year from 62 million euro in 2017, mainly due to higher finance costs.
Digi is part of BVB's blue-chip BET and BET-TR indices.
Shares of Digi traded 0.33% lower at 30.2 lei on the BVB as at 1245 CET on Wednesday.
($=0.8922 euro)