“The largest ultimate beneficial shareholder of the group is Zoltan Teszari,” who owns 43.6% directly and indirectly in RCS&RDS, the agency says. The report is one of the few sources of information about the business of the cable company.
Teszari most likely bought the shares from minority shareholders. Ovidiu Gherman, former commercial manager of RCS currently working on the same position at rival Romtelecom, owned 0.42% in RCS in 2007, but sold his stake after leaving in 2009.
RCS&RDS reached about nine million revenue generating units (RGUs; subscribers to one specific service who generate recurring revenues) for its landline and cell phone, mobile and fixed Internet and cable, satellite and IP TV services in Spain, Italy and the seven countries in Eastern Europe where it operates.
“Despite a difficult macroeconomic environment in the past couple of years, RCS & RDS added almost 1.2 million RGUs in the twelve months ended Sept. 30, 2010,” the S&P report says. It had 8.25 million RGUs in December 2009.
RCS & RDS’s revenue grew by 4.5% in the first three quarters of 2010, according to S&P, and therefore the company might end 2010 with $746 million (EUR563.4 million) in turnover if it grew at the same rate in the last quarter.