Solid commercial momentum drives strong growth ...

Solid commercial momentum drives strong growth in retail service revenues

Press release
Embargo until April 24, 2019 at 7:00 am
Regulated information

Financial information for the first quarter of 2019

Solid commercial momentum drives strong growth in retail service revenues

  • Mobile postpaid net-adds: + 21k / +53.6% yoy
  • Convergence net-adds: +20k / +5.8% yoy
  • Revenues: +3.8% yoy / Retail service revenues:+13.5% yoy
  • EBITDAaL -3.8% yoy (+14% excluding impact of MVNO revenues)

Q1’19 Belgium operating highlights

  • Commercial momentum in mobile postpaid remains solid. The mobile postpaid customer base grew by 21k (+6.9% yoy) to 2.5m subscribers. New customers are increasingly opting for higher tariff plans.
  • Convergence net-adds confirms attractiveness of offering. The Love offer remains the best value broadband and TV package in the market. Orange Belgium added 20k subscribers and reached a milestone of 200k Love customers (+64.4% yoy). The convergent mobile subscriber base represents 12.7% of mobile postpaid customers.
  • B2C convergent ARPO continued to grow strongly while mobile-only ARPO contracted slightly. B2C convergent ARPO increased 7.7% yoy to €77.4 thanks to the absence of price promotions, revenue from connection fees and the take-up of the fixed line option. Mobile-only postpaid ARPO was 1.1% lighter yoy as growing access revenues did not fully compensate decreasing out-of-bundle revenues.

Orange Belgium: key operating figures

 Q1 2018Q1 2019change
Mobile postpaid customer base (in ‘000) 2,3292,4906.9%
Net adds qoq (in ‘000) 142153.6%
Mobile only postpaid ARPO (€ per month)21.120.8-1.1%
Convergent customer base (in ‘000) 12220064.4%
Net adds qoq (in ‘000) 19205.8%
B2C convergent ARPO (€ per month)71.877.47.7%
Convergent mobile customer as % mobile contract customer base8.0%12.7%471 bp
    

Q1’19 consolidated financial highlights

  • Revenues increased 3.8% yoy to €318.2m. Retail service revenues continued its growth trajectory (+13.5% yoy). Convergence services (+83.4% yoy) and mobile only services (+3.0% yoy) were again the main growth drivers. The loss in MVNO revenues represents €12.1m. 
  • EBITDAaL was impacted by the loss of Telenet MVNO revenues. EBITDAaL decreased 3.8% yoy against Q1’18 to €58m. Excluding the MVNO impact, EBITDAaL would have increased 14% yoy due to higher revenues and control of direct costs. Once again, Orange Belgium narrowed the cable operations’ EBITDA loss to €1.1m this quarter against a €5.9m loss in Q1’18.
  • 2019 financial guidance confirmed. Orange Belgium expects slight revenue growth, EBITDAaL of €285m-€305m and stable eCapex.

Orange Belgium Group: key financial figures

      
 reportedcomparable comparablereported
(in €m)Q1 2018Q1 2018Q1 2019changechange
Revenues306.6 318.2 3.8%
Retail service revenues181.3 205.7 13.5%
      
EBITDAaLN/A60.358.0-3.8% 
marginN/A19.7%18.2%-144 bp 
eCapex -31.8-36.916.1% 
Operating cash flow1 28.521.1-25.9% 
      
Adjusted EBITDA60.6    
margin19.8%    
Capex-31.8    
Operating cash flow228.8    
      
Net financial debt295.5 252.1  
      

1 Operating cash flow defined as EBITDAaL – eCapex

2 Operating cash flow defined as Adjusted EBITDA –Capex

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