Solid commercial momentum drives strong growth in retail service revenues

Press release
Embargo until April 24, 2019 at 7:00 am
Regulated information

Financial information for the first quarter of 2019

Solid commercial momentum drives strong growth in retail service revenues

• Mobile postpaid net-adds: + 21k / +53.6% yoy
• Convergence net-adds: +20k / +5.8% yoy
• Revenues: +3.8% yoy / Retail service revenues:+13.5% yoy
• EBITDAaL -3.8% yoy (+14% excluding impact of MVNO revenues)

Q1’19 Belgium operating highlights

• Commercial momentum in mobile postpaid remains solid. The mobile postpaid customer base grew by 21k (+6.9% yoy) to 2.5m subscribers. New customers are increasingly opting for higher tariff plans.
• Convergence net-adds confirms attractiveness of offering. The Love offer remains the best value broadband and TV package in the market. Orange Belgium added 20k subscribers and reached a milestone of 200k Love customers (+64.4% yoy). The convergent mobile subscriber base represents 12.7% of mobile postpaid customers.
• B2C convergent ARPO continued to grow strongly while mobile-only ARPO contracted slightly. B2C convergent ARPO increased 7.7% yoy to €77.4 thanks to the absence of price promotions, revenue from connection fees and the take-up of the fixed line option. Mobile-only postpaid ARPO was 1.1% lighter yoy as growing access revenues did not fully compensate decreasing out-of-bundle revenues.

Orange Belgium: key operating figures

Q1’19 consolidated financial highlights

• Revenues increased 3.8% yoy to €318.2m. Retail service revenues continued its growth trajectory (+13.5% yoy). Convergence services (+83.4% yoy) and mobile only services (+3.0% yoy) were again the main growth drivers. The loss in MVNO revenues represents €12.1m. 
• EBITDAaL was impacted by the loss of Telenet MVNO revenues. EBITDAaL decreased 3.8% yoy against Q1’18 to €58m. Excluding the MVNO impact, EBITDAaL would have increased 14% yoy due to higher revenues and control of direct costs. Once again, Orange Belgium narrowed the cable operations’ EBITDA loss to €1.1m this quarter against a €5.9m loss in Q1’18.
• 2019 financial guidance confirmed. Orange Belgium expects slight revenue growth, EBITDAaL of €285m-€305m and stable eCapex.

Orange Belgium Group: key financial figures

1 Operating cash flow defined as EBITDAaL – eCapex

2 Operating cash flow defined as Adjusted EBITDA –Capex

Attachment

• OBEL_ER_2019 Q1 ENG FINAL