Telia posts Q1 loss on divestments, starts share buyback as cash flow improves

News General Scandinavia 20 APR 2018
Telia posts Q1 loss on divestments, starts share buyback as cash flow improves

Telia reported a net loss of SEK 600 million for the first quarter, versus a profit of SEK 7.05 billion a year ago, due to losses on divestments in central Asia. Revenues were still up 3.2 percent to SEK 19.85 billion, and adjusted EBITDA rose 7.4 percent to SEK 6.50 billion. Telia also announced plans to buy back SEK 5 billion in shares over the next three years. 

CEO Johan Dennelind said the Swedish operator had a strong start to the year in terms of cash flow, benefiting from the sale of its stake in Spotify and a dividend from Turkcell. Operating free cash flow was up 8.1 percent to SEK 4.26 billion, while capex fell 3.9 percent to SEK 2.79 billion. For the full year 2018, the company now expects free cash flow before spectrum fees to be above, rather than "around", last year's level of SEK 9.7 billion. 

Telia left the EBITDA forecast unchanged, for an annual result in line with or slightly above 2017 on an organic basis. The figure in Q1 was up 4.2 percent year-on-year, while organic sales rose just 0.2 percent, and organic service revenue was down 0.9 percent. The CEO said Telia completed around SEK 200 million in cost savings in Q1 and was on track for a reduction of SEK 1.1 billion over the full year. 

Categories:

General

Companies:

Turkcell,  Spotify

Regions:

Scandinavia

Tags:

Voice services, Data services, Financial figures, Wireline, Wireless, Internet Access

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