Hannes Ametsreiter, the CEO of Telekom Austria Group, said the company’s partnership with America Movil means it can look to the future with optimism.

In a statement published as part of the operator’s first half results, Ametsreiter said: “Thanks to the strong partnership with America Movil, we will be able to take important steps in the months to come to further develop Telekom Austria Group.”

America Movil cemented its control of Telekom Austria in July when shareholders representing 23.5 per cent of the Austrian company’s share capital accepted its public tender offer. The Latin American group already held a stake of more than 27 per cent, meaning it now has a majority of 51 per cent.

The Mexican company established a shareholder pact with Austria’s state holding company OIAG, which has a 28 per cent in Telecom Austria, in April. Under local law, the agreement obliged a bid for the outstanding shares in Telekom Austria.

For the first half of 2014, Telekom Austria reported revenue of €1.94 billion, down 7.3 per cent year-on-year. The decline was attributed to a fall in revenue in Austria, Bulgaria and Croatia, as well as regulatory effects totalling €43.7 million at a group level.

Revenue in Austria dropped 11 per cent to €1.2 billion and by 7.6 per cent in Croatia, to €175.8 million. Regulatory effects were blamed. In Bulgaria, the Mobiltel operatation saw revenue decline by 8.1 per cent to €182.7 million.

However, the company said there was a “positive development” in Belarus and its additional markets segment.

Belarus saw revenue increase by 20.6 per cent to €166.3 million, while operations in Serbia and Slovenia saw revenue increases of 17.1 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively. However, these could not offset the weak performance in the aforementioned markets.

The company ended up with a net loss of €317.8 million, mainly due to €400 million in impairment charges related to the Bulgarian business.

The write-down relating to Bulgaria was made public in July with Siegfried Wolf, the chairman of state holding company OIAG – the biggest shareholder in Telekom Austria – saying it put Telekom Austria in “an extremely precarious situation”.

Ametsreiter said the “persisting negative effects of the global economic and financial crisis” particularly affected markets in Central and Eastern Europe, with the Bulgarian market “heavily overshadowed by poor economic prospects and the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine”.

The company touted its cost saving efforts in helping to counteract revenue declines. Siegfried Mayrhofer, CFO of Telekom Austria, said that taking out one-off effects, “we are on the right track to improve our operating business moving forward”.

By the end of the period, the Group had 19.9 million subscribers, down 0.8 per cent on the 20 million at the end of the first half of 2013.