Second quarter 2009: Commitment to priorities remains firm
Fornebu
8 minute read
"The trends from the first quarter of 2009 continued into this quarter, with a challenging business environment also affecting the telecom sector. In spite of pressure on the top line development our operations are improving their performance, resulting in a record high operating cash flow. At the end of the quarter, we reached a total of 168 million mobile subscriptions," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor.
Strong growth and high margins
"Grameenphone in Bangladesh and Mobile Norway are delivering a particularly strong quarter, both in terms of revenue growth and margins. We are also happy to see that Telenor Pakistan this quarter reached its highest margins so far. During this quarter the margins and market positions in CEE remained strong and Kyivstar distributed dividends for 2006 and 2007. The Telenor portion amounted to NOK 2.1 billion," Baksaas said.
The Telenor brand launched in Denmark
"In June the Telenor brand was successfully launched in the Danish market. The rebranding will strengthen Telenor Denmark's ability to provide unified products and services, as well as creating a stronger company identity. In Sweden we continue to focus on improving efficiency. In addition to initiatives in sales and distribution channels, downsizing of staff has been announced and will be completed during the second half of 2009," Baksaas said.
Preparing for launch in India
"In India we are building our operation and preparing for launch. Key agreements are now in place, including GSM equipment and IT outsourcing, in addition to infrastructure sharing. We plan to launch services in five circles in the fourth quarter. The current roll-out plan is embedded in our updated outlook for 2009," Baksaas said.
New hearing in Siberia
"Our shares in VimpelCom are under arrest since 11 March 2009 related to the unfounded Farimex case. Telenor's appeal of previous rulings is scheduled to be heard in the Federal Court of Tyumen 30 September 2009," Baksaas said.
Revenues remain under pressure
"For the rest of the year we expect revenues to remain under pressure. We will continue to scale our business activities accordingly, while delivering a strong operating cash flow and sustaining our market positions," Baksaas said.
Key Figures
The table below contains pro forma key figures (including Kyivstar) for the second quarter of 2009, compared to the previous year:
| (NOK in millions except earnings per share) | Q2 2009 | Q2 2008 | Year 2008 |
| Revenues | 26 923 | 27 058 | 109 970 |
| EBITDA before other income and expenses | 9 332 | 9 362 | 38 491 |
| EBITDA margin before other income and expenses (%) | 34.7 | 34.6 | 35.0 |
| Adjusted operating profit | 5 071 | 5 621 | 22 640 |
| Adjusted operating profit/Revenues (%) | 18.8 | 20.8 | 20.6 |
| Profit after taxes and non-controlling interests | 1 375 | 3 536 | 13 065 |
| Earnings per share from total operations, basic, in NOK | 0.83 | 2.11 | 7.83 |
| Capex | 3 249 | 6 386 | 22 715 |
| Capex excl. licences and spectrum | 3 249 | 4 836 | 20 680 |
| Capex excl. licences and spectrum/Revenues (%) | 12.1 | 17.9 | 18.8 |
| Operating cash flow (EBITDA before other income and expenses - Capex) | 6 083 | 4 526 | 17 811 |
| Net interest-bearing liabilities | 34 728 | 35 702 | 39 309 |
For more information please refer to the quarterly report on
https://www.telenor.com/en/investor-relations/reports/q2-2009.
Read more about Telenor's 2nd quarterly report.
Contact:
Pål Kvalheim
Vice President, Group Communications
Telenor Group
Tel: +47 970 44 970
E-mail: pal.kvalheim@telenor.com
To the editorial offices:
Analyst and press conference
In connection with the publication of the financial results, an analyst and press conference will be held on Thursday 23 July 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 analyst and press conference will be broadcast live over the Internet, and a recorded version will be made available on https://www.telenor.com/en/investor-relations/reports/q2-2009. 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/en/investor-relations/financial-calendar/telenor-s-results-for-the-2nd-quarter-2009
Conference call and Q&A
The analyst and press 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 Q&A session in the auditorium.
Please register at least 10 minutes before the conference starts, by calling:
(+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/en/investor-relations/reports/q2-2009. at 07:00 and 09:00 hrs Norwegian time/CET, respectively.