Russia's Megafon 2007 net profit jumps 70 pct

MOSCOW, April 17 (Reuters) - Megafon, the third largest
mobile phone operator in the former Soviet Union, reported a 70
percent increase in net profit in 2007, while revenue rose by 53
percent.

The company said in a statement on Thursday its net profit
under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) rose
to $1.38 billion from $813 million in 2006. Revenue grew to
$5.72 billion from $3.73 billion.

Megafon's results showed its revenue growth had outpaced its
two main competitors, the largest mobile phone operators in the
region: MTS (MBT.N) and Vimpelcom (VIP.N), whose revenue grew 29
percent and 47.3 percent respectively.

Megafon attributed its income growth to an improvement in
the living standard of the population, which has allowed the
mobile phone market to mature rapidly.

"The company's increased revenues, high profitability and
balanced investment policy helped it to increase its free cash
flow to $0.9 billion, up almost 3.5 times from 2006," Megafon's
general director Sergei Soldatenkov said in the statement.

The firm's capital expenditures amounted to $1.5 billion in
2007.

Following is a summary of Megafon's results (figures in $mln
except margin and customer outflow as a percentage, average
revenue per user, or ARPU, in dollars and minutes of use, or
MOU, in minutes)

2007 2006 Q4 2007 Q4 2006
Total revenue 5,720 3,733 1,576 1,117
EBITDA 2,916 1,849 778 529
EBITDA margin (%) 51.0 49.5 49.4 47.4
Gross profit 4,648 3,088 1,284 901
Net profit 1,384 8128 375 242
ARPU ($) 14.1 12.3 15.1 13.3
MOU 244 211 267 223
Customer utflow (%) 42 46 11 13

MegaFon said it had 36.5 million clients in Russia and
Tajikistan as of the end of March and its share of the Russian
market was 22 percent.

Sweden's TeliaSonera (TLS1V.HE) (TLSN.ST) holds a 43.8
percent stake in MegaFon, while Altimo, the investment vehicle
of Russia's Alfa Group, has 25.1 percent.

(Reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva; Writing by Tanya Mosolova;
Editing by David Holmes)