LMT profits "over the hill" at record level

Latvian Mobile Telephone (LMT), which is 49 % owned by Sweden's TeliaSonera (and indirectlty via Lattelekom's 23 % holding), posted record 2005 after-tax profits of LVL 56.4 million, only slightly up from LVL 54.6 million in 2004. Turnover rose to a preliminary LVL 168.4 million, compared to LVL 149.3 million in 2004.
The figures show that profitability at LMT is flattening due to increasing competition and an expansion of the client base to lower revenue-bringing, less profitable customers. This is inevitable as the number of mobile users approaches or may even have passed 1.7 million of a population of around 2.2 million. It can be reasonably said that the company is past peak on margins and may have reached the top of its profit figures in absolute terms.