Israeli cableco HOT Telecommunication Systems has released its financial results for its 2009 fiscal year, posting a 5% year-on-year increase in revenue for the twelve-month period ended 31 December 2009.

HOT generated a turnover of ILS3.12 billion (USD830.6 million), up against ILS2.97 billion in FY2008. However, the operator saw net profit plunge 16.3% to ILS77 million, down from ILS92 million, with HOT attributing the decline to a one-off ILS76 million provision for claims. Operating profit for the year was ILS266 million, down from ILS348 million a year earlier, with the cableco posting a ILS1 million operating loss for its cable TV operations, compared to a ILS172 million operating profit in 2008, but profit from national long-distance (NLD) services rose from ILS176 million to ILS267 million.

In terms of subscribers HOT revealed that sign-ups to its high speed internet services had risen 6% y-o-y to 719,000, up from 679,000 at end-2008, while the number of subscribers to the operator’s fixed line telephony services rose from 470,000 to 562,000.

Commenting on the results, HOT CEO Herzl Oze said: ‘2009 was especially challenging, both because of the economic slowdown, and because of rising competition, particularly in view of the service crisis the company experienced in late 2008 and early 2009.’