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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 1996
OMNITEL, ITALY'S NEW PRIVATE GSM OPERATOR, CLOSES 1995
BY MEETING ALL OF ITS OBJECTIVES. THE FIRST MONTHS OF
1996 CONFIRM THE COMPANY'S SUCCESS IN THE ITALIAN GSM MARKET
Omnitel's GSM market share is already over 35%
Milan - Omnitel, Italy's new private GSM operator,
announced today
results for fiscal year 1995. The company met all of its financial
and operating objectives for the year.
In the course of 1995, Omnitel has pursued an ambitious development
plan in terms of both organization and technology: thanks to 1,200
new hires the company grew to 1,600 employees, it invested over Lire
900 billion to deploy at record speed a state of the art digital
infrastructure; in just three weeks of commercial service it was
chosen by 50,000 customers.
Thanks to a 1,450 billion Lire capitalization commitment by its
shareholders and a project financing deal worth 1,800 billion Lire
that was successfully underwritten by leading international financial
institutions, Omnitel was able to secure the financial backing
required for its future development. These sound technological,
financial and organizational foundations, enabled Omnitel to
successfully start 1996 by continuing to rapidly deploy its network,
by launching innovative commercial services and new GSM services. In
the first few months of 1996, Omnitel captured a 35% GSM market share
with peaks of over 40% in certain geographic areas, despite the lack
of national roaming, which didn't become operational until March 13.
Today, the Omnitel GSM network has 1,000 active cell sites and will
soon reach coverage of 50% of the Italian territory, available to 75%
of the population.
Omnitel closed its fiscal year 1995 with a debt of 517 billion Lire as
compared to 368 billion Lire registered on December 31, 1994. In 1995
revenues amounted to 46.2 billion Lire, of which 30 billion Lire came
from network services and the sale of handsets, while operating
expenses amounted to 281.2 billion Lire, a figure of 25 billion Lire
less than the amount indicated in the company's plans.
The company's capital and share premium reserve amounted to Lire 800
billion of which 725 billion as company capital and the remaining 75
billion in the form of share premium reserve. The operating loss of
Lire 128 billion for the year ended on December 31, 1995 was brought
forward to the 1996 fiscal year.
In the course of the year, Omnitel successfully closed a five year
long, fixed rate, financing deal worth Lire 306 billion with Finnish
Export Credit to support the company's purchase of Nokia based GSM
infrastructure technology.
"In the course of 1996 we'll continue to invest to consolidate the
foundations we have built in 1995" stated Francesco Caio, Managing
Director, Omnitel Pronto Italia. "We will invest an additional Lire
600 billion in network infrastructure to further deploy our network
which will reach 50% coverage of the territory over the next few days,
and 85% of the Italian population by the end of the year. We have
just left behind us an incredible 1995 during which the Company
successfully overcame many challenges. Thanks to the efforts of all
of our employees, partners and share owners we have been able to
combine speed of growth and network deployment, with quality of
service and cost control. All of this with one objective: customer
satisfaction. And we are therefore proud to see customers confirm,
day after day, that we are moving in the right direction."
####
Media contacts:
- Stefano Lai, Omnitel Pronto Italia, Milan - Tel.: +39-2-4143.3240
Patrick Trancu, TT&A, Milan - Tel.: +39-2-74.90.187
Brian Wood, Bell Atlantic Enterprises International, 215-963-6204