Fourth quarter and preliminary results for 2007: World's seventh largest mobile operator

Press release
Fornebu
11 minute read
With 30 million new subscriptions in 2007, Telenor is now ranked as the world's seventh largest mobile operator with a total of 143 million subscriptions in its mobile operations. The high underlying revenue growth continued in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Compared to the previous year, Telenor's revenues (including Kyivstar) increased by 15 per cent in 2007, to NOK 105 billion. Profit after taxes and minority interests increased by 13 per cent in 2007 compared to 2006, reaching NOK 18 billion.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, revenues increased by 10 per cent compared to the same period last year, reaching NOK 27 billion (including Kyivstar). The EBITDA margin in the fourth quarter of 2007 was 32.8 per cent, compared to 33.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2006.

"For the full year 2007, we continued to deliver high underlying revenue growth and upheld our market positions, in spite of challenging business conditions in several of our operations," said President and CEO of Telenor, Jon Fredrik Baksaas.

Central and Eastern Europe
In November, the last remaining injunction against Kyivstar was lifted. The financial information from Kyivstar confirmed Telenor's earlier estimates. "In the fourth quarter, Kyivstar continued its impressive performance with high revenue growth combined with solid EBITDA and cash flow margins," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas.

Nordic
"In Norway, we are disappointed with the performance of our mobile operation in this quarter. The current cost base is not sustainable in today's competitive market, thus cost efficiency measures will be implemented during 2008," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas.

Asia
"In Asia, we see continued high customer growth, in particular in Pakistan, where we added an impressive 2 million subscriptions during the quarter. At the same time revenues and EBITDA improved significantly. In October, DTAC in Thailand successfully adopted Telenor's visual identity, and Telenor's logo is now visible in markets covering around 400 million people," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas.

Broadcast
In the fourth quarter of 2007, revenues in Broadcast increased by 15 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2006, reaching NOK 1 898 million. EBITDA was NOK 419 million, compared to NOK 260 million in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Key figures
The table below contains key figures for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2007, compared to the previous year:

F O U R T H Q U A R T E R

Y E A R

2007

2006

2007

2006

(NOK in millions except earnings per share)

Group

Pro forma Group incl. Kyivstar

Unaudited Group

Group

Pro forma Group incl. Kyivstar

Unaudited Group

Revenues

23 737

26 914

24 535

92 473

105 021

91 077

EBITDA before other income and expenses

7 062

8 831

8 186

28 984

36 358

32 992

EBITDA margin before other income and expenses (%)

29.8

32.8

33.4

31.3

34.6

36.2

Adjusted operating profit

3 391

4 768

4 110

15 026

20 642

18 271

Adjusted operating profit/Revenues (%)

14.3

17.7

16.8

16.2

19.7

20.1

Profit after taxes and minority interests (Net income)

7 634

5 869

6 205

18 016

18 016

15 920

Earnings per share from total operations, basic, in NOK

4.54

3.49

3.69

10.72

10.72

9.44

Capex

6 014

7 084

6 095

19 477

22 079

19 036

Investments in businesses

447

447

20

6 041

6 041

22 124

Net interest-bearing liabilities

-

-

-

39 881

-

43 255

For more information please refer to the quarterly report on www.telenor.com/ir/reports/07q4 .

"Telenor will continue to develop customer friendly and innovative solutions. In all our markets we maintain our focus on sustainability to ensure positive local impact," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas.

Contact:
Vice President Group Communications, Scott Engebrigtsen
Tel: +47 90043484, E-mail scott.engebrigtsen@telenor.com

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 Wednesday 13 February 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 https://www.telenor.com/ir/reports/07q4. 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 https://www.telenor.com/ir/reports/07q4.

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 presentation 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 https://www.telenor.com/ir/reports/07q4 at 07:00 and 09:00 hrs Norwegian time/CET, respectively.