Regained commercial momentum and efficient cost reduction boosting EBITDAaL
Press release
Embargo until 23 October 2020 at 7:00 am
Regulated information – Inside information
Financial information for the third quarter of 2020 and first nine months of 2020
Regained commercial momentum and efficient cost reduction boosting EBITDAaL
- Mobile postpaid customer base +2.6% yoy / Convergence customer base +30.8% yoy
- Q3 Revenues1 -0.6% yoy / Q3 Retail service revenues1 +2.6% yoy
- Q3 EBITDAaL1 +7.2% yoy
- Guidance 2020 confirmed
| Operational Highlights |
|
| Orange Belgium: key operating figures | |||
| Q3 2019 | Q3 2020 | change | |
| Mobile postpaid customer base (in ‘000) | 2 548 | 2 615 | 2.6% |
| Net adds (in ‘000) | 32 | 21 | -34.3% |
| Mobile only postpaid ARPO (€ per month) | 21.2 | 20.5 | -3.0% |
| Convergent customer base (in ‘000) | 233 | 305 | 30.8% |
| Net adds (in ‘000) | 17 | 17 | -3.7% |
| B2C convergent ARPO (€ per month) | 77.7 | 75.4 | -3.0% |
| Convergent mobile customer as % mobile contract customer base | 14.6% | 19.1% | 454 bp |
| Financial Highlights |
|
Orange Belgium Group: key financial figures
| reported | comparable1 | comparable | reported | reported | comparable | comparable | reported | |||
| in €m | Q3 2019 | Q3 2019 | Q3 2020 | change | change | 9M 2019 | 9M 2019 | 9M 2020 | change | change |
| Revenues | 334.3 | 337.2 | 335.3 | -0.6% | 0.3% | 971.4 | 993.6 | 971.9 | -2.2% | 0.1% |
| Retail service revenues | 221.8 | 224.7 | 230.6 | 2.6% | 4.0% | 634.5 | 656.0 | 676.4 | 3.1% | 6.6% |
| EBITDAaL | 83.6 | 83.4 | 89.4 | 7.2% | 6.9% | 220.5 | 219.6 | 237.6 | 8.2% | 7.7% |
| margin as % of revenues | 25.0% | 24.7% | 26.7% | 193 bp | 165 bp | 22.7% | 22.1% | 24.4% | 235 bp | 174 bp |
| eCapex | -39.3 | -39.3 | -41.9 | 6.8% | 6.8% | -119.1 | -119.1 | -106.8 | -10.3% | -10.3% |
| Operating cash flow2 | 44.3 | 44.1 | 47.5 | 7.5% | 7.0% | 101.4 | 100.4 | 130.7 | 30.1% | 28.9% |
| Net financial debt | 248.4 | 135.3 | 248.4 | 135.3 | ||||||
- Comparable base includes Upsize N.V. 2019 before acquisition
- Operating cash flow defined as EBITDAaL – eCapex
Xavier Pichon, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
I am pleased to report a quarter of excellent commercial and financial performance. Despite increased competition, we regained commercial momentum and we were able to continue our growth in mobile and convergence. Our bold positioning has enabled us to reach the milestone of 300k customers only 4 years after the introduction of the first cable customer.
The COVID-19 measures still partially impacted our operations, limiting the full capacity of our shops and salespeople. We continue to do our utmost to ensure the safety and health of our customers, our team members and all our stakeholders.
We also confirm our 2020 guidance for this year, with slight decrease in revenues, EBITDAaL of €310m-€330m, and slight decrease in eCapex.
Arnaud Castille, Chief Financial Officer, stated:
Once again, we have been able to provide strong financial results over the last quarter. Our retail service revenues increased despite the impact of the health crisis. As a result of this growth in retail service revenues along with our Bold Inside transformation program, we were able to achieve strong EBITDAaL in the third quarter. This transformation program continues to deliver a structural decrease in our costs.
We have recently announced our choice of a new supplier of our mobile infrastructure. Not only will we be able to build a top-quality network, but we will also achieve important cost savings for building and maintaining this network in the future. The estimated financials of the network sharing agreement disclosed at the announcement remain valid: cash savings of €300m over 10 years and initial set-up costs of €130m over the next 3 years.
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