Telenor Sweden Q1 revenue and EBITDA hit by lower roaming income and handset margins
The first quarter of 2020 demonstrates solid financial performance, with 2 percent growth in subscription and traffic revenues, organic EBITDA growth of 3 percent and solid free cash flow of almost NOK 4 billion. Telenor Group steadily progress on its modernization journey, and this quarter they saw increased subscriber uptake on copper replacement products in Norway and solid opex reductions across the group of 2 percent.
Their operation in Myanmar delivered a growth of 25 percent driven by impressive subscriber intake. Sweden and Pakistan continued to face challenging markets in the quarter.
From the latter part of March, we have started to see an impact of the global spread of COVID-19 on our performance, as we are experiencing lock-down situations in many of markets. This is in particular affecting roaming revenues and Asian prepaid markets. These effects are continuing into the second quarter.
Outlook for 2020 telenor sweden
While the first quarter results are in line with the external guidance for 2020 provided last quarter, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased uncertainty for the remainder of the year, especially related to the duration of the lockdowns across Telenor’s markets. This will in particular influence roaming revenues and prepaid markets in Asia.
For 2020, Telenor expects lower subscription and traffic revenues and EBITDA growth than previously indicated. The capex-to-sales ratio, excluding licenses and spectrum, is expected to be around 13 percent. To ensure cash flow resilience, Telenor will strengthen its focus on capex and cost management. The mid-term ambitions, communicated at the Capital Markets Day in March, are maintained. Telenor sweden
Telenor is Sweden’s third-largest mobile operator and provider of fixed broadband services to Swedish consumers
In Sweden, Telenor’s offerings include mobile, fixed and TV services. The company has been present in the Swedish market since 2001, and is considered the third largest player in terms of the number of mobile subscribers, for whom post-paid subscriptions are most prevalent.
At the end of 2021, the revenue market share was around 18% and the number of mobile subscriptions totaled 2.8 million. Details on the spectrum portfolio can be found here. Within consumer fixed broadband, Telenor held around 17% revenue market share at the end of 2021 with 0.7 million subscriptions.
