FORNEBU, Norway, May 4, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- In the first quarter of 2007, Telenor's revenues increased by 5 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2006, reaching NOK 22.4 billion. The underlying revenue growth was 12 percent. EBITDA before other income and expenses was NOK 7.1 billion while profit before taxes was NOK 4.2 billion.
"I am very pleased to present a good underlying performance for the Group, with continued high growth in revenues and subscriptions. Our consolidated mobile operations added more than 6 million subscriptions. However, Telenor's results are affected by the fact that we are not able to include Kyivstar, since the existing injunctions in Ukraine are prohibiting us from receiving financial information," said President and CEO of Telenor, Jon Fredrik Baksaas.
Mobile operations
"DiGi in Malaysia continues its excellent performance. Telenor Pakistan is growing even faster than we expected, increasing revenue per subscription and thereby delivering break-even on EBITDA. Sonofon in Denmark is delivering another solid quarter. In Bangladesh, increased competition and price reductions have led to lower growth. Grameenphone in Bangladesh is currently investigating opportunities for an initial public offering in Dhaka," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas.
Fixed
In Fixed Norway, total underlying revenues decreased by 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the first quarter of 2006, to NOK 3,856 million. The reduction of prices for traditional telephony, aligned with VoIP, has been successful. Compared to previous quarters, fewer customers have terminated their traditional telephony subscriptions. This has contributed to reduced costs for the Norwegian fixed operation. During the quarter, the number of xDSL subscriptions in Norway increased by 22,000 to 594,000. Telenor's estimated market share for xDSL in the retail market was 57 per cent, in line with the previous quarter. Telenor is the market leader within broadband in Scandinavia, with a total of 1.4 million retail subscriptions at the end of the first quarter 2007.
"I am satisfied that Fixed Norway is on track realising cost savings, improving the margin from last quarter," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas.
Broadcast
In the first quarter of 2007, Broadcast generated a revenue increase of 12 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2006, reaching NOK 1,700 million. EBITDA was NOK 375 million, down from NOK 408 million in the first quarter of 2006. At the end of the first quarter, the number of direct-to-home (DTH) pay TV subscribers was 944,000, while the number of cable TV subscribers was 700,000.
Key figures
The table below contains key figures from the first quarter of 2007,compared to the previous year:
Q1 2007 Q1 2006 Year 2006
---------------------------------------------------------------------
(NOK in millions
except Group Group Group Group Group
earnings excl. excl.
per share) Kyivstar Kyivstar
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Revenues 22446 21284 18955 91077 80121
EBITDA before
other income
and
expenses 7101 7810 6378 32992 26462
EBITDA
margin
before
other
income and
expenses
(%) 31.6 36.7 33.6 36.2 33.0
Adjusted
operating
profit 3659 4328 3275 18271 13326
Adjusted
operating
profit/
Revenues
(%) 16.3 20.3 17.3 20.1 16.6
Profit
after
taxes and
minority
interests
(Net
income) 2676 3650 3 215 15920 13998
Earnings
per
share,
in NOK 1.59 2.15 1.90 9.44 8.30
Capex 3930 3703 2873 19036 15405
Investments
in
businesses 184 8943 8943 22124 22124
Net
interest-
bearing
liabilities 42320 34956 33 400 43255 43255
For more information please refer to the quarterly report on http://www.telenor.com/ir/reports/07q1/
To the editorial offices:
Press and analyst conference
In connection with the publication of the financial results, a press and analyst conference will be held on Friday 4 May at 09:00 hrs Norwegian time/CET. The presentation will be held in Auditorium A, Telenor Expo Visitors' Centre, at the Telenor Headquarters at Fornebu outside Oslo. President and CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas and CFO Trond Westlie will present the results. All presentations will be given in English.
Internet and mobile broadcast
The press and analyst conference will be broadcast live over the Internet, and a recorded version will be made available on www.telenor.com/ir/reports/07q1. During the live transmission, written questions may be submitted via the Internet. The conference will also be available live, and in a recorded version, on mobile phones with 3G, GPRS or EDGE. For more details please refer to www.telenor.com/ir/reports/07q1.
Conference call and Q&A
The press and analyst conference will also be available as a conference call. This service also allows participants to ask questions at a concluding Q&A session, which will be held immediately after the presentations and a brief Q&A session in the auditorium. Please register well in advance on (+47) 800 80 119 (from Norway) or (+47) 23 00 04 00 (from Norway or abroad).
Materials
English language versions of the full quarterly report and all presentations used during the press and analyst conference will be made available on www.telenor.com/ir/reports/07q1 at 07:00 and 09:00 hrs Norwegian time/CET, respectively.