BELGRADE (Serbia), February 2 (SeeNews) – Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor said on Thursday the combined operating profit of its units in Serbia and Montenegro fell 12.9% to 786 million Norwegian crowns ($95.9 million/88.8 million euro) in 2016.
Telenor started reporting the results of Telenor Serbia and Telenor Montenegro as one operating segment as of January 1, 2014.
The combined number of subscribers of Telenor's two units increased by 2.486 million from 2.467 million and total revenues grew by 2.1% to 3.894 billion Norwegian crowns.
The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before other items edged down 1.1% to 1.314 Norwegian crowns and average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 2%, due to one-offs related to offsetting content revenues last year.
In the fourth quarter of 2016 alone, the combined operating profit of the Serbian and Montenegrin units of Telenor declined by 28% on the year to 142 million Norwegian crowns and EBITDA decreased by 3% due to reduced interconnect gross profit and higher operating expenses related to the mobile banking business.
The number of mobile subscriptions decreased by 148,000 during the quarter, primarily driven by the seasonal churn of prepaid subscriptions. At the end of 2016, the subscription base was 3% lower than it had been at the end of 2015.
Capital expenditure, which fell to 512 million Norwegian crowns in 2016, was mainly related to network investments, including 4G roll-out.
Details follow (in millions of Norwegian crowns):
|
Fourth quarter |
Year |
|
2016 |
2015 |
2016 |
2015 |
Revenues |
Subscription and traffic |
595 |
611 |
2,486 |
2,467 |
Interconnect revenues |
174 |
215 |
752 |
790 |
Other mobile revenues |
17 |
20 |
105 |
100 |
Non-mobile revenues |
153 |
136 |
551 |
458 |
Total revenues |
940 |
982 |
3,894 |
3,815 |
EBITDA before other items |
285 |
314 |
1,314 |
1,329 |
Operating profit |
142 |
197 |
786 |
902 |
EBITDA before other items/ Total revenues (%) |
30.3 |
32.0 |
33.7 |
34.8 |
Capex |
151 |
459 |
512 |
776 |
No. of subscriptions - Change in quarter/Total (in thousands) |
(148) |
(150) |
3,339 |
3,443 |
ARPU - monthly |
75 |
79 |
79 |
77 |
At the end of the third quarter, the 4G population coverage was 55% in Montenegro and 40% in Serbia.
In July, Telenor Montenegro renewed spectrum holdings in the 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz frequency bands and acquired additional 2x5 MHz in each of these frequency bands at a total price of 12.4 million euro.
In Serbia, the licences in the 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz frequency bands have been extended for 10 years, in line with the condition set out when Telenor entered the country in 2006.
Telenor's wireless unit competes on the Serbian market of some 7.2 million people with Telekom Srbija's mobile arm, MTS, and VIP Mobile, a unit of Telekom Austria Group.
Telenor's main competitor in Montenegro is T-Mobile Crna Gora, owned by the Hungarian unit of Deutsche Telekom, Magyar Telekom. M:tel, the third mobile operator in the Adriatic state of some 630,000, is majority owned by Telekom Srbija.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, Telenor Group also operates in Bulgaria.
(1 euro = 8.85356 Norwegian crowns)