Telia Lietuva results for the six 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, and Consolidated Interim Report for the six months’ period ended 30 June 2020.

Second quarter of 2020:
- Total revenue amounted to EUR 97.1 million, up by 5.6 per cent over the revenue of EUR 92 million in the second quarter of 2019.
- EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, was EUR 33.3 million, an increase by 6.6 per cent over EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, of EUR 31.2 million in the second quarter of 2019.
- Profit for the period was EUR 11.4 million, down by 11.5 per cent over the profit of EUR 12.9 million a year ago due to higher expenses for income tax.

First half of 2020:
- Total revenue amounted to EUR 189.3 million, up by 4.5 per cent over the revenue of EUR 181.1 million in the first half of 2019.
- EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, was EUR 66.3 million, an increase by 5.2 per cent over EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, of EUR 63.1 million in the first half of 2019.
- Profit for the period was EUR 23.9 million, down by 2.9 per cent over the profit of EUR 24.6 million a year ago due to higher expenses for income tax.
- Free cash flow amounted to EUR 45.3 million, an increase by 53 per cent over free cash flow of EUR 29.6 million a year ago.

Management comment:
The Covid-19 virus caused quarantine in Lithuania was officially over on 17 June 2020, but our shops were reopened earlier at the end of April and employees were gradually returning to the offices starting from May. Employees returning to the head-office after the quarantine could work at the first outdoor office.

We believe that today we could firmly state that Telia Lietuva successfully overcome this unprecedent challenge that completely change the way we live and work almost overnight. We kept our promise to keep people and businesses connected at any time, any place and any device used. Our network coped with suddenly increased calls’ and data traffic as we have continuously invested into reliability of our fixed and mobile networks. Our employees without disruptions switched to remote work as such set up was not the novelty for them. Our IT specialist were able to assist our customers’ in migrating to work from home mode as we are integrated communication and IT service provider. Our consultants successfully handled increased flow of incoming customers’ calls and inquiries as our Contact Centre is recognised as the best in Lithuania. Telia Lietuva we assisted in setting up the official country’s Corona virus hot line.

Quarantine didn’t prevent us from implementation of our ongoing projects. We continued creation of customer experience worth sharing – we speeded up refurbishing of our flagship shops in the largest shopping malls in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda while they were closed due to quarantine. We secured a contract for implementation of the national cloud computing services infrastructure, a project that shall consolidate state-run IT infrastructure and reduce the costs. For employees of our business customers we offered benefits of converge offer Telia1 – more data, speed and content.

The Ministry of Finance of Lithuania forecasts that the country’s economy will contract by 7 per cent in 2020 but will grow in 2021 by 5.9 per cent. Inflation will go down to 0.7 per cent this year and will go up to 1.7 per cent next year. Unemployment level in 2020 will increase up to 9.5 per cent, while in 2021 it will decrease to 8.1 per cent.

We observe that mobile devices sales are back to pre-quarantine level, businesses are re-ordering suspended services. From mid-March imposed lockdown led to greater demand for connectivity speed, VPN solutions, mobile signature as well as such equipment as PCs and TV sets.

As a result, number of customers continued to grow despite fierce competition and over the last twelve months:
- number of IPTV users increased by 5.1 per cent up to 249 thousand,
- number of mobile service subscriptions grew by 3.8 per cent up to 1,355 thousand,
- number of FTTH Internet connections went up by 2.1 per cent up to 292 thousand.

Intake of new customers, growing usage of mobile data and premium TV content were driving revenue up. Over the year, comparing the six months’ period of 2020 with the same period in 2019:
- revenue from IT services grew by 24.4 per cent,
- revenue from TV services increased by 18.3 per cent,
- revenue from mobile services (excluding mobile devices’ insurance costs) went up by 6.1 per cent.

The latest report of the Communications Regulatory Authority of Lithuanian shows that we are regaining our market share on mobile communication segment while continue to be a leader on fixed broadband Internet and pay-TV markets.

On 16 June 2020, it was 20th anniversary of the Company’s listing on the Nasdaq Vilnius stock exchange. Through those years we persistently worked to create the value and ensure steady return to our shareholders. Including the record high dividends of EUR 0.09 per share for the year 2019, during the last 20 years the Company have paid in total EUR 754 million of dividends and in 2014 paid-out to the shareholders EUR 56.2 million due to capital reduction.

On 1 July 2020, we have completed the legal integration of Telia Customer Service LT into Telia Lietuva while employees of this subsidiary were already integrated into activities of the Company when subsidiary’s Contact Center ceased provision of customer care services to external customers and concentrated on serving Telia Lietuva customers back in February 2017. On 18 June 2020, we divested shares in a loss generating associate UAB Mobilieji Mokėjimai, that till 18 May 2020 was providing mobile payments services.

ENCL.:
- Telia Lietuva, AB Consolidated Interim Financial Statements and Consolidated Interim Report for the six months’ period ended 30 June 2020.
- Presentation of Telia Lietuva, AB Group results for the 6 months of 2020.

Darius Džiaugys,
Head of Investor Relations,
tel. +370 5 236 7878,
e-mail: darius.dziaugys@telia.lt

Attachments