Russian Handset Retailer Euroset Revenues Triple

MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- Russia's largest handset retailer, ZAO Euroset, said Tuesday that its 2004 revenue tripled on the year to $970 million from $300 million in 2003, mirroring a mobile phone market boom in the country.

The number of Russians using mobile phones doubled in 2004 to 51% of the population from 25% in the end of 2003.

Euroset, which operates 1,174 shops nationwide, said that the highest mobile phone sales came in December, as Russians splashed out on handsets as Christmas presents. In December, Euroset sold 1 million handsets, almost the same amount as during the whole of 2003, and achieved sales revenue of $210 million.

Euroset's spokeswoman said that the most impressive results were shown by Korea's Pantech Co. Ltd. (025930.SE), which reached 4.5% market share by the end of the year, even though it only started selling handsets via Euroset outlets in the second quarter.

Motorola Inc. (MOT) became the leader with 27.8%, eating into the share of former leader, Siemens AG (SI), which is down to Motorola's "very impressive marketing," she said.

Korea's Samsung Corp. (000830.SE) saw its share drop to 6.7% from 11.4%. Euroset's spokeswoman said that Samsung couldn't keep up with ever-growing demand.

The table below shows the breakdown of hand set sales by brand in Euroset.

Handset producer        2004       2003 
Motorola                27.8%      26.4% 
Siemens                 22.3%      31.6% 
Samsung                 11.4%       6.7% 
LG                      10.6%      16.0% 
Nokia                   10.4%      14.4% 
SonyEricsson             6.1%       1.2% 
Pantech                  4.5%        n/a 
Philips                  3.2%        n/a 
VK Mobile                1.1%       2.8% 

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Posted to the site on 18th January 2005