Telecom Egypt doubles profit to LE1.6B in Q1 2019

CAIRO – 15 May 2019: Telecom Egypt announced its consolidated profits during the first quarter of 2019 on a year-on-year basis, doubling its net profit to LE 1.6 billion, with a margin of 27 percent.

The company added that the consolidated revenues hit LE 6.1 billion, marking an increase of 27 percent in a year-on-year basis, noting that retail revenue contributed 57 percent to the total YoY growth backed by the rise in data services revenue.

According to the Company, EBITDA recorded LE 1.9 billion, climbing 26 percent YoY with a healthy margin of 31 percent.

“Net Debt recorded LE 8.1 billion, down from LE 12.6 billion in Q4 2018, representing 1.1x annualized EBITDA down from 2.1x in Q4 2018,” it stated.

• EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, andamortization.

“Our retail revenue continues its notable growth driven by both fixed and mobile data, reflecting the growth of our customer base across our spectrum of services, which will soon expand to quad play. We aim to build upon our network capabilities and grow to become a fully-fledged ICT provider in 2019,”Group Chief Executive Adel Hamed commented.

Hamed said that the quarter is also marked by the strong execution ability of this organization having completed two strategic national projects in record time, reflecting itskey role as the facilitator of Egypt’s digital transformation initiative.

“After the success of the schools’ connectivity project in Q3 2018, Telecom Egypt, in March 2019, distributed 613k data SIMs to students in their first-year of secondary education in four days. We have also successfully connected more than 650 governmental buildings in Port Said with fiber, with more governorates to follow in the next phase.”

He added that, on the wholesale front, this quarter’s performance shows the strongest growth in wholesale revenue especially in light of the growing data consumption of MNO customers, referring to the PEACE cable system agreement signed in April that secures $45 million of revenue over the lifetime of the cable and will significantly contribute to IC&N revenue in the second quarter.

“Moreover, we signed a $20 millionLoI with PEACE’s parent, HENGTONG, which will allow us to further monetize our international network, while simultaneously optimizing our Capex spending,” he said.

In 2018, Telecom Egypt recorded consolidated profits of LE 3.49 billion, compared to LE 3.05 billion in 2017 including minority rights, with an increase of 14.26 percent.