Airtel Earns 2.8 Bln Ptas Net in '98, Sees Tenfold Rise in '99
Bloomberg News
April 21, 1999, 3:15 a.m. PT
Airtel Earns 2.8 Bln Ptas Net in '98, Sees Tenfold Rise in '99
Madrid, April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Airtel SA, Spain's second-
biggest wireless phone company, earned 2.8 billion pesetas
($17.8 million) in 1998, its first annual profit, and predicted it
will increase that profit almost tenfold in 1999.
The phone company had a loss of 13.9 billion pesetas in 1997.
It said it had 2.16 million customers at the end of 1998, almost
double the 1.15 million customers at the end of 1997. Airtel
expects to increase the number of its customers by more than 50
percent this year to 3.5 million.
Sales totaled 203.4 billion pesetas, up from 116 billion
pesetas a year earlier. Sales are expected to rise to 300 billion
pesetas in 1999.
Airtel, which is owned by AirTouch Communications Inc.,
British Telecom Plc. and a group of Spanish power companies and
banks, began operating in October 1995, ending Telefonica SA's
monopoly on the Spanish wireless market. Airtel plans to begin
fixed-line phone services this year.
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