Efficiency drive in place to lower costs
Nordic comms business Telenor has reported its first-quarter results showing that total revenues decreased by 3% to NOK 30.5bn (€3.3bn), while organic revenues remained at par with last year. Mobile subscription & traffic revenues increased by 1% on an organic basis. EBITDA before other items decreased by 1% to NOK 11.5bn (€1.2bn), corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 38%, an increase of 1 percentage point from last year.
"I'm pleased to see Telenor continuing to deliver organic EBITDA growth, while revenues were stable in the first quarter. Highlights were the strong data consumption in emerging Asia and the solid fibre momentum in Norway as well as Sweden. It has been a busy quarter, as we have introduced new and improved mobile offers in several markets, with encouraging customer reception. In Thailand and Malaysia, this supported double-digit postpaid growth, and we are actively working to mitigate the continued intense competition in the prepaid market,'' says Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor Group.
"As previously communicated, simplification and efficiency improvements are on top of our agenda. Our announcement to exit India, the continued sell-down in VEON and the launch of our cluster organisation are all examples of these efforts. Together with the company-wide initiatives to improve profitability, we believe that we are laying a solid foundation for Telenor's future," says Brekke.
The financial outlook for 2017 has been adjusted to reflect the new Group structure with India presented as discontinued operations. Telenor expects an organic revenue growth in the range of 1% to 2% and an EBITDA margin of around 37%.