Orange confirms dividend as H1 results fall

Orange has confirmed it will pay an interim dividend and said it's on track to meet its full-year targets. Of the EUR 0.80 per share in dividends promised for this year, the company will pay EUR 0.30 for the first half. The company achieved 57 percent of its annual targeted operating cash flow in the first half already, with a result down 12.8 percent from a year earlier at EUR 3.96 billion. Orange also maintained its forecast for net debt at about 2.2 times EBITDA by the end of this year, after a result of 2.1 in the first half, and said it had already achieved most of its EUR 600 million in targeted cost reductions for this year. 

EBITDA was still down 8.4 percent in the first half to EUR 6.417 billion, and the margin dropped 0.9 percent points from a year ago to 31.1 percent. Revenues fell 5.7 percent to EUR 20.60 billion, with only Spain showing positive growth of 1.3 percent. Sales in France were down 6.9 percent, Poland fell 7.2 percent, Enterprise dropped 5.5 percent and the rest of the world declined 6.4 percent. In the second quarter, the picture was little better, with group revenues down 5.5 percent and EBITDA falling 7.8 percent, down in part due to the sale the Swiss activities. 

The group reported a net profit of EUR 1.209 billion for the first half, down by EUR 700 million from a year earlier. Capex was largely stable in H1, at EUR 2.46 billion or 11.3 percent of revenues.