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On Wednesday, Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke will present the third quarter results. The semi-state telecommunications group had sales of NOK 30 billion in the period from July to the end of September and achieved an operating profit before depreciation (ebitda) of NOK 15.3 billion.
In advance, analysts expected an average turnover of NOK 30.2 billion and an operating profit before depreciation of NOK 14.1 billion. Displays an overview that Telenor’s investor department has obtained from 14 analysts.
The figures are released half a day after it emerged that Telenor is selling the head office to Norwegian Property for NOK 5.45 billion. The sale will have no effect on the third quarter result.
Return
In the second quarter, Telenor was hit hard by the fact that many of the group’s customers in Asia were not allowed to recharge their prepaid cards, as they had to do so at stores that were closed. The number of SIM cards is defined as mobile clients in Asia.
In the second quarter, Telenor lost a total of 3.2 million mobile subscribers in Asia. Only in Myanmar did Telenor see customer growth in the previous quarter. But in the third quarter, the company lost 6.3 million subscribers in Myanmar due to demands to re-register SIM cards.
In the other Asian countries, the great flight of customers has stopped. Telenor’s Bagladesh subsidiary, Grameenphone, gained 3 million new customers in the third quarter. There are as many mobile clients as Telenor in Norway. Grameenphone has already registered 77.5 million customers, more than the company had at the beginning of the year.
In Malaysia, Telenor’s subsidiary Digi increased the number of clients by 57,000 to 10.7 million, while the group’s operations in Thailand, Dtac, reduced the number of subscribers by 107,000 to 18.7 million clients.
The operating results of the three mobile companies in the third quarter are slightly below last year’s level compared to the same quarter of 2019.
Grameenphone had sales of NOK 3.8 billion in the third quarter. It is at the same level as at the same time last year. The mobile phone company made an operating profit of NOK 1,791 million. This is a 1.4% weakness compared to the third quarter of last year.
Acquisition rumors
This fall, Telenor has been frequently mentioned as a potential buyer of the mobile phone company 3’s businesses in Denmark and Sweden. TDN Direkt has written that Telenor is in negotiations with the owners of 3. Telenor’s management has indicated that they will not comment on speculation or rumors.
Telenor’s management has previously stated that they will focus on the Nordic region and Asia after the telecom group sold its mobile operations in Central Europe.
In 2019, Telenor bought DNA from the Finnish mobile company and paid around NOK 28 billion for the company.
More than five years ago, Telenor and Telia tried to merge the Danish telecommunications companies of the companies. Clear signals from EU competition authorities that they did not want to reduce four network players to three in one EU country led to the plans being shelved. Now new “mobile signals” have arrived from the EU that could lead to further consolidation in the mobile market in Europe.
Covid-19 effect
The company writes that Covid-19 has had and still has a significant effect on operations in Asia, but that the gradual reopening in Bangladesh and Pakistan gives reason for hope.
In Thailand and Malaysia, a more challenging macroeconomic situation has led to reduced demand for the company’s services. Myanmar has rising infection rates and tighter restrictions.
The decline in international travel has also led to a dramatic decline in roaming use, and Telenor expects this to continue into 2021. This will affect both Nordic operations and pre-purchased revenues from tourism in Thailand and Malaysia. (Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
