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, for the three months’ period ended 31 March 2017.
The first quarter of Telia Lietuva
First quarter of 2017: - Total revenue amounted to EUR 85.3 million, up by 3.3 per cent over the revenue of EUR 82.5 million in Q1 2016. - EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, was almost the same as a year ago (just 0.1 per cent lower) and amounted to EUR 29.2 million. - Free cash flow amounted to EUR 2.4 million (a year ago, it was negative and amounted to EUR 385 thousand).
Management comment: Following the merger of Omnitel and Baltic Data Center into the Company on 1 February 2017 and the Company name change, Telia Lietuva started to operate as one legal entity offering a wide spectrum of fixed and mobile communications services with IT expertise from a single point.
The start was marked with new offers to our residential customers: the increase of broadband internet speed over fiber-optic connections of up to 1 Gbps and a unique hybrid-type Internet service integrating copper access with the fastest 4G mobile Internet.
For business customers “Telia Cloud” service was launched, one of the first OpenStack-based cloud computing services in the Nordic region.
Investments into development of 4G and fiber-optic access network continued and the total investments during the first quarter of 2017 amounted to EUR 12.9 million (EUR 10.7 million a year ago).
According to the latest data of CRA, Telia Lietuva 4G connectivity has covered 99 per cent of the populated territory of Lithuania and remains the fastest in the country in terms of average speed.
Positive intake of a new customers over the year continued: - Number of IPTV users increased by 13.8 per cent up to 195 thousand, - Number of FTTH Internet customers grew by 8.6 per cent up to 251 thousand, - Number of post-paid service users rose by 7.1 per cent up to 1,055 thousand.
The growing number of customers and high demand for equipment (sales were up by 18.5 per cent) led to growth in total revenue by 3.3 per cent, whereof: - Revenue from TV services increased by 13.6 per cent, - Revenue from billed mobile services was up by 6.5 per cent, - Revenue from broadband Internet services grew by 4.1 per cent.
Compared with Q1 2016, higher total revenue in spite of higher total operating expenses due to rebranding resulted in the same EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, for Q1 2017, while EBITDA, including non-recurring items, for Q1 2017 was 2.2 per cent higher than a year ago. In total, operating expenses related to rebranding of the Company during Q1 2017 amounted to EUR 1.5 million.
The Company’s Contact Center Lintel changed its name to Telia Customer Service LT and ceased servicing external customers in order to concentrate on servicing Telia Lietuva customers.
During Q1 2017, the Company repaid the first tranche (EUR 30 million) of the long-term loan of EUR 150 million that was taken by the Company to finance the acquisition of Omnitel.
The Board of the Company set a target to maintain the Company’s net debt to EBITDA ratio not higher than 1.5 and to pay out up to 80 per cent of free cash flow as dividend. Having that in mind it proposes to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which will be held on 27 April 2017, to increase the dividend pay-out. The Board proposes to pay EUR 0.03 dividend per share for the year 2016, while for the year 2015 the dividend per share amounted to EUR 0.01.
ENCL.: - Telia Lietuva, AB Consolidated Interim Financial Statements for the three months’ period ended 31 March 2017. - Presentation of Telia Lietuva, AB Group results for the 3 months of 2017.
Darius Džiaugys, Head of Investor Relations, tel. +370 5 236 7878
