Orange Belgium’s Bold positioning drives another quarter of solid commercial growth
13 Février 2019 - 7:00AM
Orange Belgium’s Bold positioning drives another quarter of solid
commercial growth
Press releaseEmbargo until February 13, 2019 at
7:00 amRegulated information
Financial information for the fourth quarter and full year
2018
Orange Belgium’s Bold positioning drives
another quarter of solid commercial growth
- Strong growth in mobile contract net-adds: +116.8%
yoy / +61k in Q4’18
- Solid convergence contract net-adds: +75.0% yoy /
+25 k in Q4’18
- Q4’18 Retail services revenue +9.8%
yoy
- Q4’18 Adjusted EBITDA +11.3% yoy
- Proposed dividend: €0.50 per share
Q4’18 Belgium operational highlights
- Record mobile contract net-adds. The mobile
contract customer base grew 61k to 2.5m subscribers. Orange
Belgium’s simplified mobile offering continued to attract customers
towards mid and high-end tariffs. These plans include abundant
voice/data allowances and have improved customer satisfaction and
retention.
- Average mobile data consumption per subscriber
continued its growth trajectory. In December, usage grew
79% yoy (twice the 2017 growth rate) to 3.2 GB/month.
- Convergence offering confirmed its high attractiveness
without recourse to promotional activities. Love customers
reached 180k (+75.0% yoy) with net-adds of 25k subscribers.
Convergent mobile subscribers grew by 81.6% yoy and represent 11.5%
of mobile contract customers.
- Solid growth in B2C convergent ARPO and slight
contraction in mobile-only ARPO. B2C convergent ARPO grew
by 7.0% to €75.5 due to absence of promotional activities.
Mobile-only ARPO ended 1.8% lower as decreasing out-of-bundle
revenues mitigated greater access revenues.
Group financial highlights
- Q4’18 revenues increased 5.1% to
€342.2m thanks to retail services (+9.8%), in particular
convergent services (+94.6%). Full-year revenues grew 2.7% to
€1,279.8m on the solid growth in retail services (+8.4%).
- Q4’18 Adjusted EBITDA grew by 11.3% to
€77.4m on growing revenues as well as efficiencies, in
particular an improving cost structure in convergence services.
Amidst a surge in convergent customers, the cable operations’
EBITDA loss was limited to €1.5m this quarter against a €3.5m loss
in Q4’17. Adjusted EBITDA for the full-year contracted by 3.3%
€286.1m due to the loss of MVNO revenues and the impact of EU
roaming regulation.
- Net debt decreased to €264.3m at year-end.
Gearing remains low with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.9x.
- The Board of Directors will propose at the Annual General
Meeting a dividend of €0.50 per share for the 2018 fiscal
year.
Orange
Belgium Group’s consolidated key figures |
FY 2018 |
FY 2017 |
Variation |
Q4 2018 |
Q4 2017 |
Variation |
Belgium operating KPI |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mobile contract customers base excl. M2M (in ‘000) |
|
|
|
2,469 |
2,315 |
6.6% |
Net adds excl. M2M qoq (in ‘000) |
153 |
68 |
126.9% |
61 |
28 |
116.8% |
ARPO mobile only contract (€ per month) |
|
|
|
20.8 |
21.2 |
-1.8% |
Convergent customer base (in ‘000) |
|
|
|
180 |
103 |
75.0% |
Net adds qoq (in ‘000) |
77 |
70 |
11.0% |
25 |
21 |
18.5% |
B2C convergent ARPO (€ per month) |
|
|
|
75.5 |
70.5 |
7.0% |
convergent
mobile customer as % mobile contract customer base |
|
|
|
11.5% |
6.7% |
|
Group financials (€ m) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Revenues |
1,279.8 |
1,246.4 |
2.7% |
342.2 |
325.4 |
5.1% |
Retail service revenues |
768.4 |
709.0 |
8.4% |
199.3 |
181.4 |
9.8% |
Adjusted EBITDA |
286.1 |
295.8 |
-3.3% |
77.4 |
69.6 |
11.3% |
% of Revenues |
22.4% |
23.7% |
|
22.6% |
21.4% |
|
Net profit |
32.4 |
39.0 |
-16.8% |
8.2 |
-1.9 |
529.0% |
Capex |
-179.4 |
-188.4 |
-4.8% |
-69.0 |
-73.8 |
6.5% |
Organic cash flow |
80.6 |
65.9 |
22.3% |
-14.1 |
-15.9 |
11.4% |
Net financial debt |
|
|
|
264.3 |
312.8 |
-15.5% |
Michaël Trabbia, Chief Executive Officer,
commented:
“2018 was a turning point for Orange Belgium. We
reshaped the telecom market with our Bold Challenger positioning,
while confirming our success on the Internet & TV market with
our Love offer. We listened to our customers’ unmet demand for
simple and worry-free offers. I am proud that we were the first
Belgian mobile operator to launch unlimited mobile and convergent
services.
Our unlimited offers and excellent network
contributed to a record number of new customers choosing a mobile
or Love offer in 2018. Our customers are clearly reaping the
benefits: average data consumption has increased 79% in only one
year! And for the first time, Orange was the most used mobile
network in Belgium during the New Year celebration.
In 2019, we will continue to address consumer
frustrations in Belgium. We will therefore launch a genuine
unlimited Internet-only offer. We are committed to not increase
prices on mobile and bundles. Finally, we guarantee indoor mobile
coverage for each customer.”
Arnaud Castille, Chief Financial Officer,
stated:
“Orange Belgium met all 2018 targets despite
active competition, loss of MVNO revenues and the impact of EU
roaming regulation. This demonstrates our ability to create value
with a Bold positioning and highlights the Group’s strong
underlying performance. I am especially pleased that Adjusted
EBITDA returned to growth in the third and fourth quarter.
Shaping the future, we also reached two
important achievements in 2018. We signed a 5-year wholesale
partnership with Medialaan, the leading Flemish commercial
broadcaster. Secondly, we narrowed the convergence operations’
EBITDA losses by 11% through a combination of cost optimization,
churn reduction and lower wholesale price.”
2019 outlook
Orange Belgium expects slight growth in revenues
in 2019. The Company targets Adjusted EBITDA between €285m and
€305m. Total capex is expected to remain stable in comparison to
last year.
- ENG Orange Belgium - Financial results Q4 2018 FV