Millicom maintained its organic growth in Q4, with service revenue up 2.0 percent and EBITDA growing 6.9 percent. The company expects the trend to continue in 2018 and maintained its annual dividend at USD 2.64 per share.
In line with Q3 and the company's outlook, quarterly sales rose 2.1 percent to USD 1.558 billion on strengthening markets in Latin America. The figures exclude the divested Senegal and Ghana operations, and Millicom completed its exit from Rwanda at the end of January. The company said the Tigo mobile business was growing again, led by countries such as Paraguay and Bolivia, where the transition from voice to data is more advanced.
Reported EBITDA from continuing operations was up 7.9 percent from a year ago to USD 561 million, and the margin improved to 36.1 percent from 34.0 a year ago. After stable capex of USD 384 million in the quarter, Millicom's operating cash flow rose 30.3 percent to USD 177 million.
For 2018, the company forecast service revenue growth of 2-4 percent and EBITDA growth of 3-6 percent in constant currency in Latin America, and capital expenditures for the region of approximately USD 1 billion.
It aims to add 3 million new 4G data customers to end the year with over 10 million, while the Home business anticipates adding 1 million new HFC homes passed to reach 10 million and to connect an incremental 300,000 HFC homes to the network. For Africa, which now includes just Tanzania and Chad, the region should continue to produce positive equity free cash flow.
Millicom ended the year with 31.9 million mobile customers, up 3.3 percent from 2016. Just over 15 million were data customers, and 6.9 million used 4G. Mobile ARPU reached USD 7.8, down 2.9 percent from 2016 on a constant currency and perimeter basis.
The Home business passed nearly 9.1 million homes, up 11.8 percent from 2016, and HFC homes passed rose 18 percent last year to over 8.4 million. There were nearly 4.4 million revenue-generating units on the HFC network, up 18.2 percent over the year, and Home ARPU rose 1.9 percent during the period to USD 28.3.
