Telenor expects its growth to slow and margins to come under pressure in 2016, amid fierce competition and headwinds in key markets like Thailand and Malaysia. After reporting 4.7 percent organic revenue growth in 2015, the company expects the growth rate to slow to 2-4 percent this year, while the EBITDA margin will drop to 33-34 percent from 34.5 in 2015. The company said it will continue to invest in the roll-out of mobile and fixed broadband networks, maintaining capital expenditure at a high 17-19 percent of sales this year versus 18.4 percent in 2015.
The outlook is in line with a slowdown in the fourth quarter, with organic revenue growth of 2.3 percent versus 4.5 percent in Q3. Total revenues rose to NOK 33.5 billion from NOK 30.4 billion a year ago, and adjusted EBITDA increased to NOK 10.9 billion from NOK 9.3 billion. The EBITDA margin was 32.4 percent. The bottom line was a loss of NOK 2.1 billion, after an impairment charge of NOK 2.1 billion on the Danish operations following the failure of the merger with Telia last year. Despite the loss, Telenor increased its dividend to NOK 7.50 per share from NOK 7.30 last year.
