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Telecom
July 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
been in dispute over a contract signed 10 years ago.
Istrefi also said that Telekom has engaged international legal experts on this issue and that bankruptcy will not happen.
Russian Veon mobile major gets former Facebook exec for new Ventures unit
Russian mobile operator Veon (former Vimpelcom) will hire Sergi Herrero, an executive currently with Facebook, to become the COO
of the recently created Ventures division, the company said on July 15. The appointment will be effective from September 2019.
Herrero is Facebook’s global director of payments and commerce partnerships, which oversees the launch and growth of payment and commerce capabilities for Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Before joining Facebook in 2014 he held several senior roles in technology, banking and consulting. For Veon, Herrero will formulate a strategy to grow beyond traditional connectivity, focusing on other adjacent products.
"Veon is apparently regrouping to make another push in non-telecom revenue," Maria Sukhanova of BCS Global Markets commented on July
The Kosovan government said earlier that there is no chance to repay Kosovo Telecom's debts.
16. "The success in that is not a given, but the strengthening of the team could provide a strong base," she believes, seeing the news as neutral for Veon at the moment.
The company showed 6% revenue decline to $2.2bn and EBITDA slipped by 4% to $0.82bn with a 39% margin in the first quarter of 2019. The company's results in 1Q19 were affected by weaker currencies in Russia and Pakistan, which if unaccounted for, would make 7% and 10% revenue and Ebitda growth respectively.
Previously in the fourth quarter Veon reported unexciting results. But in the first quarter of 2019 "the numbers came in ahead of our expectations on EBITDA thanks to better profitability in Ukraine and more significant cuts in HQ costs; this still suggests a decline y/y due to currency headwinds in the countries of operation," BCS Global Markets commented on May 3.