Orange Belgium : Third quarter 2016 financial results
21 Oktober 2016 - 7:00AM
Solid mobile
service revenues with +7.2 % restated EBITDA growth in Q3 lead
Orange Belgium to upgrade its 2016 guidance
Clear focus on
convergence and customer experience
Brussels, 21 October 2016 - Today,
the Orange Belgium Group (Euronext Brussels: OBEL) publishes its
results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2016.
Following the rebranding and the national launch of the Orange
Internet + TV offer in Belgium in the second quarter of 2016,
Orange Belgium maintains an intense and sustained activity in the
third quarter of 2016 with the launch of a new convergent and data
centric mobile portfolio. In the third quarter of 2016, the Orange
Belgium Group succeeded in realizing a solid restated EBITDA (+ 7.2
% year-on-year), supported by stable mobile service revenues and a
constant focus on cost management, more than offsetting 13.0
million euros EU roaming impact.
-
In the third quarter and first nine months of
2016 the Orange Belgium Group realized a total turnover of 311.1
and 919.8 million euros, an increase of 1.7 % and 0.8 % year-on
year (+6.2 % and +2.9 % underlying growth once adjusted for the
13.0 and 19.2 million euros EU roaming impact). This performance
has been fuelled by a solid growth in mobile service revenues of
5.2 % and 3.9 % year-on-year in the third quarter and first nine
months of 2016 once adjusted for EU roaming, reflecting both a
growing postpaid customer base (+57.3 thousand) and sustained
postpaid ARPU evolution (+1.5 %) in Belgium, compared to September
2015.
-
In combination with the positive development of
the top line, a tireless focus on cost management allowed the
Orange Belgium Group to absorb the fixed costs related to the cable
launch and the adverse impact of EU roaming. The restated EBITDA
amounted to 92.2 and 237.1 million euros in the third quarter and
first nine months of 2016, equivalent to a 7.2 % and 4.0 % growth
year-on-year. The Group pursued its efforts on cost transformation
in the third quarter of 2016 that translated into lower commissions
paid to third-party distributors, a reduction in labor costs and a
further decrease in IT and network expenses. This operational
performance, in addition to the mobile capex normalization, led to
a net financial debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.9x from 1.7x a year ago,
reflecting a strong operational cash flow in the third quarter of
2016, up 38.9 % year-on-year or 25.2 % year-on-year in the first
nine months of 2016.
-
The rebranding from Mobistar to Orange has been
positively welcomed by the Belgian population. Riding the wave of
the UEFA EURO 2016 sponsorship, and alongside the Go Europe roaming
promotion during summer, Orange Belgium is increasingly perceived
as a convergent operator. The first Orange Internet +TV advertising
campaign launched in September 2016 as well as the newly launched
advertising campaign that is currently supporting the launch of the
new mobile product portfolio, will further establish Orange as a
strong and convergent brand in Belgium.
-
The Orange Internet + TV customer base developed
favorably in the third quarter of 2016, reaching 17.6 thousand
billed convergent customers, supported by a competitive pricing for
a high quality product. While upselling campaigns towards existing
mobile customers continue being a success, the go-to-market has
progressively evolved in September 2016 towards the acquisition of
people that are not yet Orange Belgium clients as more distribution
channels (Carrefour, Media Markt) were opened. Towards the end of
the third quarter of 2016 there was a clear acceleration in gross
adds driven by the first Orange Internet + TV advertising
campaign.
-
Both the postpaid customer base and ARPU have
now increased for six consecutive quarters. In a competitive and
promotional market, Orange Belgium's postpaid customer base grew by
3.5 thousand customers in the third quarter of 2016, ahead of the
launch of Orange Belgium's new mobile and convergent portfolio. For
the first nine months of 2016 Orange Belgium added 29.7 thousand
postpaid customers. Furthermore, 4G adoption amongst Orange
Belgium's customers continued with an increase of close to 100
thousand active postpaid 4G users in the third quarter of 2016.
Supported by the continued increase of 4G smartphone penetration
and mobile data usage, the postpaid ARPU increased further to 28.8
euro in the third quarter of 2016, an increase of 1.5 %
year-on-year, in spite of the impact of EU roaming regulation,
reflecting the ability to upsell tariff plans and to monetize
mobile data growth.
-
As a result of this strong financial and
commercial performance over the first nine months of 2016, the
Orange Belgium Group is upgrading its restated EBITDA guidance by
10 million euros for the 2016 financial year by revising the
guidance to 'between 280 and 300 million euros including 15 million euros cable costs' from 'between
285 and 305 million euros excluding cable
costs' previously.
Orange Belgium Investor Relations
For the full PDF version, please click here
below:
Q3 2016 results - FR
Q3 2016 results - UK
Q3 2016 results - NL
This
announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf
of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely
responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the
information contained therein.
Source: Orange Belgium via Globenewswire
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