MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - Rostelecom (RTS: RTKM) said Thursday its net profit in the first quarter of this year calculated to Russian Accounting Standards had dropped 14.8% year on year from 2.4 billion ($88.7 mln) to 2.05 bln rubles ($75.5 mln).
Russia's largest long-distance telecom services provider said its Q1 revenues grew 52.3% year on year to 14.6 bln rubles ($537 mln) on higher returns from long-distance and international services due to the introduction of new tariffs on January 1, 2006.
The company said Q1 revenues from long-distance services had risen 77.8% year-on-year to 7.9 bln rubles ($290 mln), and revenues from international telephone services had increased 45.2% to 3.2 bln rubles ($117.8 mln), while EBITDA dropped 19.5% to 3.07 bln rubles (about $112 mln).
Rostelecom, a subsidiary of telecoms major Svyazinvest, connects Russia with 211 countries worldwide.
The International rating agency Standard & Poor's raised in March its long-term corporate credit rating on Rostelecom from B+ to BB- and the company said in April it was set to increase its dividends for 2005 by 14.3% against 2004 to $74 million.
