The net profit of state telecom monopoly Slovenské Telekomunikácie (ST), according to international accounting standards, fell 60% in 1998 from the year before.
The company ended 1998 with a net profit of 902 million Slovak crowns, against a 2.2 billion crown profit in 1997. To make matters worse, ST was required to transfer an additional 500 million crowns from 1998's profit to the state budget.
According to the company's official annual report, released on July 2, revenues grew by 11% to almost 17 billion crowns, while costs increased 22% to 13 billion crowns.
Charges for telephone calls made up 60% of the total revenues. Customers paid 8.2 billion crowns for calls within Slovakia and almost 2 billion crowns for international calls. ST received 1.8 billion crowns from foreign operators for international calls to Slovakia.
Slovak mobile phone operators - EuroTel Bratislava and Globtel GSM - paid 989 million crowns for using ST's services.
ST's total assets increased by 18.5% to 49 billion crowns. The company's long-term debts climbed 41% to 22 billion crowns, while its short-term debts increased 26% to 4.3 billion crowns.
