Danish operator TDC Group has reported slight year-on-year upturns in fourth quarter revenue and EBITDA as it continued to cut costs throughout the group. The operator lost another 22,000 TV customers in Q4 as well as 18,000 broadband subscribers, but added 14,000 mobile subscribers. In FY 2021, TDC predicts EBITDA to be a little lower than 2020, or at the same level.
TDC reported revenue of almost DKK 4.06 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, which it said was a little higher than in Q3 2020. Gross profit in the quarter was DKK 2.79 billion. EBITDA exceeded DKK 1.50 billion in Q4, up slightly from a year earlier.
Full-year revenue was DKK 16.09 billion and FY gross profit was DKK 11.46 billion. Full-year EBITDA was 6.42 billion, which at a little lower than the year before, was in line with expectations.
The operator said the trend for its main products had stabilised, and costs throughout the group had been reduced. In the fourth quarter, operating expenditure was down 8.7 percent compared with the same quarter in 2019. FY opex was 9.5 percent lower than the year before.
CEO Henrik Clausen said increased digitisation had led to declines of products such as fixed telephony, DSL broadband and traditional television. The company has been making up for these declines by launching new products, upgrading internet speed, and deploying fibre and nationwide 5G. Clausen added that TDC has been working on improving customer service through simplification and digitisation to hold on to TDC Net’s and Nuuday’s market-leading positions, and to create two strong and independent operations.
Looking ahead to 2021, TDC expects EBITDA to be a little below the 2020 level, or in line with it. This is because of the follow-on effect of the extraordinary loss of customers at YouSee in H1 2020, and expected declines in fixed telephony, DSL and traditional TV. TDC had ended 2019 with 1.71 million television subscribers.
TDC said its Nuuday service division has held on to its market-leading position in its main segments. In the fourth quarter, its mobile market share edged up to 39 percent from 38.9 percent, with a slight drop to 42.4 percent from 43.1 percent for broadband, and a dip to 50.8 percent from 51.2 percent in television.
Nuuday’s revenue declined by 5.6 percent year on year in the fourth quarter to DKK 3.73 billion but EBITDA rose by 8.2 percent to DKK 421 million. Nuuday’s Q4 operating expenses plunged 20.1 percent year on year to DKK 829 million, thanks to a general cost focus and savings in every opex category. Personnel expenditure and acquisition costs in particular were greatly reduced.
The operator stressed Nuuday’s progress in supplying high-speed lines through wholesale fibre access agreements with Norlys, Energi Fyn and Nord Energi. It said Nuuday can now supply broadband to 65 percent of Danish residences. In the fourth quarter, it launched its new Eesy mobile brand and the flexible television and streaming service YouTv to gain a foothold and demonstrate its market relevance.
Network division TDC Net suffered a 3.9 percent drop in revenue in the fourth quarter to DKK 1.68 billion but EBITDA edged up by 0.5 percent to DKK 1.08 billion. Capital expenditure decreased by 3 percent to DKK 1.09 billion. It completed 5G deployment in the fourth quarter, with the result, it said, that Denmark became the first country in the Nordic region to have nationwide 5G coverage. Altogether, 3,800 mobile masts have been upgraded to 5G. TDC Net has increased the speed of its 4G network by almost 50 percent, too.
TDC intends to phase out 3G by the end of 2022. TDC Net’s fibre deployment beat expectations in the fourth quarter, achieving more than 42,000 addresses and bringing the total to over 123,000.
TDC said it lost 22,000 television customers during the fourth quarter, ending the year with 1.03 million TV subscribers. Television ARPU was unchanged from Q3 2020 at DKK 264 per month.
The broadband based shrank by 18,000 to 1.14 million, of whom 1.01 million (down 19,000) were consumer customers and 125,000 (up 1,000) were business broadband customers. Consumer broadband ARPU held steady at DKK 221 monthly but business broadband ARPU dropped by DKK 5 to DKK 257.
The operator added 14,000 net mobile customers to 3.12 million on 31 December. Of those, 1.96 million were consumer mobile customers (up by 13,000) and 1.16 million were corporate mobile customers (up by 1,000). Consumer mobile voice ARPU was unchanged from the third quarter at DKK 127 a month but business mobile voice ARPU slipped by DKK from Q3 to DKK 87 monthly in Q4.
