Trends in the activities of Russian telecommunications companies based on the analysis of the dynamics of reporting indicators

Task. The purpose of this article is to study the financial statements of the five largest public Russian Telecom companies by revenue in order to identify the main trends in the development of the industry, as well as its prospects and main directions. As well as confirmation of the hypothesis that companies, in order to maximize profits, adapt to changes so that eventually the difference between the percentage ratio of the main indicators of reporting decreases and companies strive for a single optimal asset ratio that is appropriate to the current market situation. Model. The article examines methods of horizontal, vertical and coefficient analysis and mathematical statistics, analyzes international standard financial statements for the past 10 years. Five public companies with the highest revenue were selected for analysis: MTS, MegaFon, Veon, Rostelecom, and Tattelecom. The sample is determined by the small number of public companies in the Telecom industry. Conclusions. This hypothesis was partially confirmed - the difference between some indicators of companies becomes smaller over time; there are no correlations between the covariance coefficient and the values of such indicators as capital and reserves, profitability, absolute liquidity, and debt coverage ratio. However, to finally confirm or disprove the hypothesis, you should continue to monitor the financial statements of the companies under study. Practical importance. Due to the fact that telecommunications companies are high-tech companies, the share of intangible assets and fixed assets is quite high, which explains the ratio of weights between current and non-current assets. However, both the composition of intangible assets and fixed assets differs from company to company. As for current assets, most of them are cash, cash equivalents, short-term financial investments and accounts receivable, but the structure of current assets also differs in the companies under consideration. Despite this, the ratio of current to non-current assets is approximately the same in all the analyzed companies over the past 8 years, which, together with the fact that the difference between the shares of assets in the balance sheets of different companies has become smaller over the past two years, indicates that they are coming to a common business model. We can assume that this trend will only continue in the future. The structure of the liability changes over the period under review: the difference between the capital of companies increases, and the similarity between long-term liabilities increases, against this background, the structure of liabilities of companies becomes more similar. This trend is likely to continue. Originality. In General, there are more similarities between similar liquidity ratios and turnover of companies, which indicates that the business processes of companies are moving in the same direction, and we can expect this trend to continue in the future. There are no similarities between profitability yet. The question of the trend of increasing similarity of financial indicators of the largest telecommunications companies requires further observation and consideration.

infrastructure, telecommunications industry, Telecom, telecommunications market, IFRS, financial reporting