Improved Nordic mobile revenue trends

“We see positive trends for mobile service revenues in the Nordic region, with a growth of 4 percent in the third quarter”, says Sigve Brekke, President and CEO of Telenor Group.

For the Group, high energy prices, especially in Norway, Denmark, and Pakistan, continue to be a headwind. However, the negative effects are, this quarter, countered by a reversal of sim tax provision in Pakistan, leading to 2.5 percent EBITDA growth. Free cash flow came in at NOK 5 billion, implying a cash generation so far this year of NOK 10 billion.

In September, Telenor hosted a capital markets day where the strategy and ambitions for the next three years were presented. The Group's operations and value creation will be focused around four business areas: Telenor Nordics, Telenor Asia, Telenor Infrastructure and Telenor Amp. The sale of a 30 percent stake in the newly established fibre infrastructure company in Norway, which is expected to close in early 2023 confirms the company's execution on this strategy.

“In the Nordics, growth in value added services is contributing to mobile revenue growth. We see a continued trend of customers' high demand for secure connectivity in a sharply increasing digital risk environment”, says Brekke.

Increased data usage was the main driver for Grameenphone's 7 percent service revenue growth this quarter, which also translated into solid EBITDA growth. In Malaysia, the planned merger of Digi and Celcom received clearance from the Securities Commission, and is expected to be completed before year-end, following approval by the companies' shareholder meetings.

With regards to the outlook for the year, Telenor maintains the expectation of low single digit growth in service revenues. Although a significant increase in energy prices is weighing on the EBITDA, a positive one-time effect in Pakistan this quarter supports maintaining the outlook of organic EBITDA around last year's level. The capex to sales ratio is expected to be in the previously indicated range of 16-17 percent.

Third quarter summary*

• Total reported revenues were NOK 28.4 billion which is an increase of NOK 1.0 billion compared to the same period last year. Service revenues increased by 2.5% on an organic basis.
• Reported opex increased by NOK 0.4 billion. Organic opex increased by NOK 0.5 billion.
• Reported EBITDA before other items was NOK 13.1 billion which is an increase of 1.6%. Organic EBITDA increased by 2.5 percent.
• Increase in energy cost of NOK 0.4 billion impacted EBITDA development negatively by 3 percentage points which was more than offset by one-time effect related to reversal of sim tax provision in Pakistan of NOK 0.6 billion following a High Court decision in favor of Telenor Pakistan.
• Capex excluding licences and spectrum fees was NOK 4.1 billion, yielding a capex to sales ratio of 14 percent.
• Net income attributable to equity holders of Telenor ASA was NOK 1.5 billion for the quarter. Net income was impacted by currency losses of NOK 2.4 billion mainly as a result of strengthening of USD against NOK.
• Total free cash flow was NOK 5.2 billion for the quarter, of which NOK 4.0 billion was before M&A.
• The leverage ratio decreased to 2.1x from 2.2x at the end of the previous quarter mainly as free cash flow more than compensated for negative currency effects.

*Please refer to page 29 in the quarterly report for definitions and descriptions of alternative performance measures.

 Press contact:

David Fidjeland, Director Media Relations, Telenor Group

+47 934 67 224 | [email protected]