Telia Lietuva results for the twelve months of 2020

The Board of Telia Lietuva, AB (hereinafter “Telia Lietuva” or “the Company”) approved unaudited Telia Lietuva, AB Consolidated Interim Financial Statements, prepared according to International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union, for the twelve months’ period ended 31 December 2020.

Fourth quarter of 2020:

- Total revenue amounted to EUR 108.6 million, an increase by 1.5 per cent over the revenue of EUR 107 million in the fourth quarter of 2019.

- EBITDA was EUR 34.1 million, an increase by 0.3 per cent over EBITDA of EUR 34 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Adjusted EBITDA (excluding non-recurring items) declined by 0.5 per cent.

- Profit for the period was EUR 16.9 million and was almost the same (lower by 0.7 per cent) as the profit of EUR 17 million a year ago.

Twelve months of 2020:

- Total revenue amounted to EUR 398.1 million, an increase by 2.5 per cent over the revenue of EUR 388.3 million for the twelve months of 2019.

- EBITDA was EUR 134.9 million and grew by 4.7 per cent over EBITDA of EUR 128.9 million for January-December of 2019. Adjusted EBITDA (excluding non-recurring items) went up by 4 per cent.

- Profit for the period was EUR 55.9 million, an increase by 2.1 per cent over the profit of EUR 54.7 million a year ago.

- Free cash flow amounted to EUR 87.7 million, an increase by 0.3 per cent over free cash flow of EUR 87.4 million a year ago.

Management comment:

The last quarter of 2020 has been an eventful one. We announced about partnership with Ericsson for modernisation of existing mobile network and 5G network rollout in Lithuania. Over the next three years, we plan to upgrade a total of about 2,000 base stations in Lithuania using Ericsson equipment. In November, we were the first in Lithuania to launch the first 5G base stations in three largest cities for non-commercial use. At the end of 2020, our market capitalisation exceeded one billion euro and the Company’s share price reached its record high.

From November the country is back into lockdown. Our retail outlets remain opened but only vital services being provided such as mobile signature or pick-up of equipment. Majority of the Company’s employees continue working at remote mode, while engineers ensure installation of new and uninterrupted provision of daily services. We continued to contribute to the fight against the consequences of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Lithuania. Our specialists installed and continues servicing the Coronavirus Hotline for residents, developed information robot to Covid-19 infected people.

The drastic but necessary travel restrictions had a negative impact on the telecommunications business due to decline in roaming services, but remote work, education and the tremendous breakthrough in business digitisation meant only one thing to us: even better quality, more data, IT services, TV content and equipment.

Recent forecast of the Bank of Lithuania predicts that Lithuania’s GDP in 2020 shall shrunk by 2 per cent and shall recover next year with a 1.9 per cent growth in GDP. In November 2020, the European Commission forecasted that decline of Lithuania’s GDP in 2020 shall be the lowest among other EU countries – 2.2 per cent.

During October-December of 2020, the biggest intake of new customers was recorded in number of prepaid (8 thousand) and post-paid (6 thousand) mobile service subscriptions. Number of TV and fiber-optic Internet service users grew by 2 thousand each, while number of DSL connection eased by just 1 thousand and fixed telephony lines by 9 thousand.

Over the last twelve months:

- number of mobile service subscriptions grew by 3.8 per cent up to 1,398 thousand,

- number of TV service users increased by 3.7 per cent up to 253 thousand,

- number of FTTH Internet connections went up by 0.7 per cent up to 297 thousand.

Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 exceeded EUR 100 million in spite of lower volumes of roaming and voice transit services. The revenue increase was ensured by double-digit surge in TV and IT services, as well as continuous growth in mobile communication, broadband Internet and equipment sale.

Over the year, comparing the twelve months of 2020 with the same period a year ago:

- revenue from IT services grew by 23.1 per cent,

- revenue from TV services increased by 16.9 per cent,

- comparable (like for like) revenue from billed mobile services was up by 5.6 per cent,

- equipment sale went up by 4.3 per cent.

The Company’s expenses were under control and that in combination with increased revenue led to a higher than in 2019 EBITDA. The Company also continued to generate strong cash flows. Capital investments during the last quarter of 2020 has surged and for the full year were 2.3 per cent higher than in 2019. Almost half of invested amount went to development of fixed network while one third – to upgrade of the Company’s IT systems under business transformation program. Mobile network development ensured our leadership in mobile Internet speed race with an average 85.1 Mbps speed in the Company’s network according to the latest measurement of Communications Regulatory Authorities.

For constant improvements, good capital management and decent growth figures Telia Lietuva was recognised as the best listed company in Baltics according to evaluation of Corporate Excellence Award Jury comprised of representative of Herens Quality Asset Management AG (Switzerland), Alphinox Quality AS (Latvia) and Riga Technical University.

In November 2020, a new Chair of the Board, Douglas Lubbe, a CFO of Telia Sverige, stepped in to substitute Emil Nilsson, who led the Board of Telia Lietuva for almost 2 years and has resigned due his departure from Telia Company.

By the end of 2020, the Company together with the other Telia Company Group operating in Baltics and Nordics became a climate neutral undertaking. Since 2019, we use only green electricity, our mobile communication base stations operates under electricity saving program, we collect and reuse the customers’ end equipment and 84 per cent of our transportation fleet is already compliant with Euro6 emission standard.

ENCL.:

- Telia Lietuva, AB Consolidated Interim Financial Statements for the twelve months’ period ended 31 December 2020.

- Presentation of Telia Lietuva, AB results for the twelve months of 2020

Darius Džiaugys,

Head of Investor Relations,

tel. ,

e-mail:

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