2009 has been quite a challenging year for Globul with adverse macroeconomic environment as a result of the drastic drop of the exports and direct foreign investments, fierce competition with continuous erosion of the retail prices, consolidation of the retail environment and a market that has approached saturation with penetration of over 140%.

Total revenues marked a minimal decrease of 2.6% and service revenues dropped by 5.8% mainly due to contained usage from the corporate customers seeking to optimize expenses, residential sector where usage was influenced by lower purchasing power and lower interconnect rates imposed by the Bulgarian Regulation Authorities.

Globul's OIBDA registered a 4.3% decline compared to 2008, while the OIBDA margin decerased by 0.7pp to 41.8%. Despite the challenging business environment, Globul managed to reduce non revenue related costs by 5% compared to 2008 through consistent cost rationalization initiatives focusing primarily on vendors' consolidation, network maintenance optimization and cash discounts. Capital Expenditure has been rationalized vs. 2008 resulting in improving significantly cash contribution compared to 2008 by 19%. Net Cash generated during 2009 is significantly higher vs. 2008 as a result of the efficient cash and working capital management.

Globul's postpaid customer base increased by 1.5% on the year to a total of 2.1 million representing 55% of the operator's total customer base. Globul's total customer base at the end of 2009 was 3.9 million.

Globul's blended AMOU for 2009 reached 119 minutes, up by 6.3% compared to 2008, while Globul's blended ARPU decreased by 8% in comparison to last year, at BGN 17.60, positively affected by the shift of customer base towards postpaid.

(In BGN million)01/12/0901/12/08ChangeRevenues876.6899.7-2.60%Operating Income165.3195.2-15.30%OIBDA366.1382.6-4.30%OIBDA margin41.80%42.50%