Orange saw its sales growth slow in the third quarter on the introduction of roam-like-home in the EU, but said increased volumes of visitor roaming largely offset the drop in roaming prices. Total revenues fell 0.5 percent to EUR 10.274 billion, but were up 0.9 percent on a comparable basis.
Comparable sales growth was strongest in the Central European markets, at 6.9 percent, followed by a 6.4 percent increase in Spain and 3.1 percent growth in Africa and the Middle East. France was up by 0.2 percent, while Poland showed a drop of 1.3 percent in underlying sales.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 0.7 percent in Q3 to EUR 3.622 billion, and the margin rose half a percent point to 35.4 percent. Capital expenditure was up 2.0 percent to EUR 1.597 billion excluding licence payments. That included EUR 12 million for the planned launch of Orange Bank next week.
For the full year, Orange said it still expects higher adjusted EBITDA on a comparable basis, after 2.2 percent growth in the first nine months. The company also reiterated plans to pay a dividend of EUR 0.65 per share for 2017, with an interim payment of EUR 0.25 per share in December.
Orange ended the quarter with 207.5 million mobile customers, up 3.2 percent from a year earlier. Contract customers rose 7.3 percent year-on-year. The group’s fixed broadband customers increased to 19.3 million at 30 September, up 5.2 percent from a year ago. That includes 4.2 million fibre customers, up 47 percent.
