(Fornebu, 16 July 2020) «This quarter has brought unprecedented challenges for our customers and employees, as societies in the regions Telenor operates in have endured the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of measures taken to stop it. In such a situation, providing our customers with critical services and ensuring our employees’ health and safety has been our first priority. Despite the challenges, I am proud to say that during the past months, Telenor has taken a leap within digitalisation. We are now further increasing our focus on touch free operations, digital customer interactions and new ways of working.
Our operating model has given us flexibility to manage operations, cost and investments, contributing to an EBITDA growth of 1 percent and free cash flow of NOK 4 billion in the quarter. As expected, lockdowns have affected prepaid markets in Asia and global roaming revenues negatively. Combined with a reduction in new sales, this led to a decline in organic subscription and traffic revenues of 4 percent, which was offset by an opex reduction of 12 percent. The financial results this quarter are positively impacted by the strong performance in our operations in Norway and Finland, while Bangladesh and Pakistan, as expected, remain the most challenged prepaid markets.
Our strategy of growth, modernisation and responsible business has provided us with the ability to deliver critical services and manoeuvre in these demanding times. Going forward, we will use this experience to further enhance the execution of our modernisation journey. For 2020, we expect a low single digit percent decline in subscription and traffic revenues, stable organic EBITDA and around 13 percent capex to sales. We will continue to focus on cost management and capex to secure resilience in cash flow.»
Sigve Brekke, President and CEO, Telenor Group
KEY FIGURES TELENOR GROUP | Second quarter | First half year | Year | ||
NOK in million | 2020 | 2019 | 2020 | 2019 | 2019 |
Revenues | 30,903 | 26,917 | 61,856 | 53,505 | 113,666 |
Organic revenue growth (%) | -4.2 | 0.9 | -1.4 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
Subscription and traffic revenues | 23,753 | 20,480 | 47,620 | 40,867 | 85,954 |
Organic subscription and traffic revenue growth (%) | -3.6 | -0.4 | -0.9 | -0.1 | 0.4 |
EBITDA before other income and other expenses | 14,331 | 12,029 | 28,437 | 24,206 | 50,735 |
Organic EBITDA growth (%) | 1.0 | -3.5 | 1.8 | -3.4 | -2.7 |
EBITDA before other income and other expenses/Revenues (%) | 46.4 | 44.7 | 46.0 | 45.2 | 44.6 |
Net income attributable to equity holders of Telenor ASA | 4,428 | 2,856 | 5,125 | 6,678 | 7,773 |
Capex excl. licences and spectrum | 3,815 | 4,087 | 6,894 | 8,116 | 17,415 |
Total Capex | 3,861 | 4,093 | 6,985 | 8,122 | 18,075 |
Free cash flow before M&A | 3,995 | -1,092 | 6,659 | 495 | 3,831 |
Total Free cash flow | 3,579 | -1,147 | 7,353 | 1,404 | -18,998 |
Mobile subscriptions - Change in quarter / Total (mill.) | -3.2 | 2.3 | 182.4 | 178.3 | 186.0 |
Second quarter 2020 summary1
Press contact:
Tormod Sandstø, Director Media Relations, Telenor Group
M: +4790943215 | Tormod.Sandsto@telenor.com
1 Please refer to Definitions on page 27 for descriptions of alternative performance measures. Some of the comments on the Group’s financial results for the second quarter 2020 are made excluding DNA. Please refer to page 9 for the Group’s consolidated figures in NOK for DNA.