Positive results despite impact of Covid-19 and strained competitive environment
21 April 2021 - 7:00AM
Positive results despite impact of Covid-19 and strained
competitive environment
Press releaseEmbargo until 21 April 2021 at
7:00 am Regulated information – Inside information
Financial information for the first quarter 2021
Positive results despite impact of Covid-19
and strained competitive environment
- Mobile postpaid customer base +3.0% yoy / Cable customer
base +24.8% yoy
- Q1 Revenues -1.0% yoy / Q1 Retail service revenues
+1.9% yoy
- Q1 EBITDAaL +12.8% yoy, +4.6% yoy excluding
seasonality effect
- 2021 guidance confirmed
Q1 Operational Highlights |
- Commercial performance remained solid amid a tougher
competitive environment and on-going Covid-19 measures that limited
the shops’ full capacity.
- Go portfolio remains a success, with Go Unlimited special
edition gaining traction. During the quarter, 23k new mobile
postpaid customers were added, reaching 2.7m subscribers (+3.0%
yoy).
- Cable net adds continued to be strong with 23k new
customers. One third of the gross adds are Love Duo customers,
confirming the commercial trend of former quarters. Convergent
mobile subscribers continued to grow and now represent 21.3% of
mobile postpaid customers vs 17.4% achieved in Q1’20.
- Mobile only postpaid ARPO declined by 3.4% yoy to €19.6,
due to the decrease in out-of-bundle revenues.
- B2C convergent ARPO decreased by 2.8% yoy to €73.8,
mainly explained by the discounts provided on mobile tariff plans
in convergence, as well as the continuous growth of Love Duo in the
customer base, decreasing the overall ARPO.
|
Orange
Belgium: key operating figures |
|
|
|
|
Q1 2020 |
Q1 2021 |
change |
Mobile postpaid
customer base (in ‘000) |
2,588 |
2,664 |
3.0% |
Net adds (in
‘000) |
9 |
23 |
160.5% |
Mobile only
postpaid ARPO (€ per month) |
20.3 |
19.6 |
-3.4% |
Cable customer
base (in ‘000) |
280 |
349 |
24.8% |
Net adds (in
‘000) |
21 |
23 |
6.8% |
B2C convergent
ARPO (€ per month) |
75.9 |
73.8 |
-2.8% |
Cable customer
as % mobile contract customer base |
17.4% |
21.3% |
386 bp |
|
|
|
|
Q1 Financial Highlights |
- Revenues reached €330.4m, down 1.0% yoy. Retail service
revenues continued to grow by 1.9%, mainly thanks to higher
convergent service revenues (+16.9% yoy). As in past quarters,
Covid-19 impacted wholesale revenues
(-16.0% yoy),
mainly due to lower incoming SMS revenues (-€12.3m, offset by lower
SMS costs).
- EBITDAaL grew 12.8% yoy to €70.1m, driven by higher
retail service revenues, supported by lower costs (-4.2% yoy).
There was a €3.6m tailwind from seasonality in advertising and
promotional spend linked to the launch of Go offers in Q1’20 and
€1.5m one-off related to roaming. Excluding those effects the
EBITDAaL had grown +4.6% yoy to €65.0m.
- eCapex (excluding spectrum licence fees) increased slightly
by 2.6% yoy to €36.1m.
- 2021 financial guidance confirmed: Orange Belgium
expects low single-digit revenue growth, EBITDAaL of between €320m
and €340m and eCapex between €200m and €220m.
|
Orange
Belgium Group: key financial figures |
|
|
|
in
€m |
Q1 2020 |
Q1 2021 |
change |
|
Revenues |
333.9 |
330.4 |
-1.0% |
|
Retail service
revenues |
224.8 |
229.0 |
1.9% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
EBITDAaL |
62.2 |
70.1 |
12.8% |
|
margin as % of
revenues |
18.6% |
21.2% |
260 bp |
|
eCapex 1 |
-35.1 |
-36.1 |
2.6% |
|
Operating
cash2 |
27.0 |
34.1 |
26.0% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net financial
debt |
229.0 |
122.6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- eCapex excluding licence fees. In Q1 2020 Orange Belgium paid
10.9 million euros on licence fees.
- Operating cash flow defined as EBITDAaL – eCapex excluding
licence fees
Xavier Pichon, Chief Executive Officer,
commented:
The first quarter of the year was characterised
by both an ever-straining competitive environment together with the
extension of the Covid-19 policies. Our shops remained open but
with limited capacity in accordance with the recommendations of the
competent authorities.
Thanks to our Team members’ commitment, we were
even able to offer an improved customer experience and to attract
new customers with numbers comparable to pre-pandemic levels.
Despite the challenges we are facing, Orange Belgium has shown
strong resilience and delivered solid commercial and financial
results for this quarter.
Antoine Chouc, Chief Financial Officer,
stated:
The positive commercial performance also
resulted in good financial results. Despite the sanitary crisis, we
were once again able to grow in terms of retail service revenues,
confirming the resilience of our activity. Thanks to our
transformation programme, seasonality effect in our indirect costs
as well as the one-off in roaming, we managed to improve the
EBITDAaL in comparison to the first quarter of 2020.
The first quarter gives us the necessary
assurance that we will achieve our guidance announced last
quarter.
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