COSMOROM CEO, Mr. Nikolaos Tsolas (photo), along with COSMOTE Group CEO, Mr. Evangelos Martigopoulos, announced on Friday the forthcoming relaunch of the Romanian mobile operator after the completion of the acquisition by COSMOTE of 70% stake in COSMOROM'™s shared capital. The conference was also attended by Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Zsolt Nagy, and OTE Group Chairman & CEO, Mr. Panagis Vourloumis.
Within the framework of COSMOTE'™s extending footprint in South Eastern Europe, the Group'™s CEO, Mr Evangelos Martigopoulos, stated that COSMOROM'™s goal is to become a key player in the Romanian telecommunications market and an attractive proposal to all stakeholders. Mr. Martigopoulos reiterated the management'™s commitment to ensure the development and profitability of its Romanian mobile telephony operations and firmly expressed his optimism about COSMOROM'™s successful future course. COSMOTE, being the only third entrant in Europe to obtain first position within its market, has unparalleled experience in entering markets as late entrant and turning into leader operator in a short period of time.
'COSMOTE has proven in the past that late entry in a regional market is a constructive and creative process. We plan to invest in Romania and deploy the Group'™s valuable expertise, unique knowledge and cutting edge technologies that we have developed from our operations in Greece, Bulgaria, FYROM and Albania. Our significant financial investment, estimated to reach up to 450 million euro, is coupled with an invaluable transfer of skills and know how. It is an investment that will bring significant financial and human capital returns', Mr. Evangelos Martigopoulos added.
COSMOROM CEO, Mr. Nikolaos Tsolas, commented: 'Romania is a high potential market. There are many challenges ahead stemming from the market conditions. These challenges, though, are the main triggers for COSMOROM to be innovative, creative and maintain high standards, something that is inherent in the wider COSMOTE culture'.
Based on the successful Greek model, COSMOROM will follow the same customer centric philosophy with the aim to provide innovative services of the highest quality at competitive prices as well as the roll out of an advanced telecoms network at record time to secure seamless services to the entire Romanian population.
With regards to the commercial network, COSMOROM will exploit synergies with ROMTELECOM at a local level aiming at market differentiation, deploy an extensive dealers'™ network and launch exclusive stores while exploring any opportunity for further expansion.
Human capital will play an essential role to the success of this significant project. For this purpose, COSMOROM has built up a dynamic, flexible core management team consisting of highly skilled executives from Romania and Greece. Moreover, the investment will create a significant number of job opportunities, with the majority of COSMOROM'™s human resources needs to be covered by local professionals.
The management team of COSMOROM:
Nikolaos Tsolas '“ Chief Executive Officer
Through its investment in COSMOROM, one of the biggest investments ever made in Romania, COSMOTE will contribute to the further development of the telecommunications market and technological advancement of the country, with tangible benefits for the Romanian economy and its people.
COSMOROM, third mobile operator in the Romanian telecommunications market, was the first to introduce the operating system based on the GSM 1800 standard in Romania. In July 2005, COSMOTE, the Greek mobile telecommunications operator, completed the acquisition of 70% stake in COSMOROM'™s share capital following an agreement signed with ROMTELECOM in May 2005. Utilising COSMOTE Group'™s experience from the successful operations in Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and FYROM as well as its unique, throughout Europe, track record as late entrant turning to market leader, COSMOROM will relaunch operations by the end of 2005.
COSMOTE, a member of OTE Group, started commercial operations in Greece in 1998, 5 years after its competitors and in June 2001 was the only third market entrant in Europe to achieve 1st place in its market. The market leader in Greece, with more than 4 million customers, COSMOTE also operates in four more Balkan countries: in Albania through the leading mobile operator AMC as well as in Bulgaria, FYROM and Romania through GloBul, COSMOFON and COSMOROM respectively. In 2004 COSMOTE generated over 1.58 billion euro in revenues and approximately 308.2 million euro in net profit. COSMOTE played a prominent role in the success of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games, as a Grand National Sponsor of the event. In June 2004, the company exclusively launched i-modeTM services in Greece, while intends to launch i-mode services in all countries in which it operates gradually. COSMOTE'™s stock trades in the Athens and London Stock Exchanges. For more information please visit: www.cosmote.gr
