TA’s 2010 turnover down, say analysts

Telekom Austria (TA) may have suffered a decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) and turnover last year, according to leading analysts.Experts of Erste Bank, Bank Austria (BA) owner UniCredit and Raiffeisen Centrobank (RCB) said today (Tues) that they had expected Austria’s leading provider of telecommunication services and mobile connections to have done worse in 2010 than in the previous year.The analysts’ announcements from today suggest that TA achieved Ebitda of 1.63 billion Euros and a turnover of 4.64 billion Euros. These figures would mean year on year declines of 10 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively.TA boss Hannes Ametsreiter said in October 2010 that his firm was aiming to achieve Ebitda between 1.6 and 1.65 billion Euros and a turnover of 4.7 billion Euros in 2010. Ametsreiter will present TA’s 2010 performance figures tomorrow.Austria holds a 28.4 per cent interest in TA via the Federal Industry-Holding Stock Corporation ÖIAG.Previous TA executive board members and the company’s marketing decision-makers recently came under fire due to revelations by magazine profil that controversial lobbyist Peter Hochegger received 25 million Euros in a period of 10 years until 2009.Hochegger and business partner and ex-Freedom Party (FPÖ) official Walter Meischberger are facing tax evasion charges in connection with a 10-million-Euro lobbying activity considering the privatisation of property management firm BUWOG seven years ago.