Orange reported a return to comparable sales growth in Q2, as a small recovery in its home market France and continued growth in Africa and the Mideast offset the tough conditions in the Spanish market. Comparable sales were up 0.5 percent year-on-year, as reported revenues increase 2.0 percent to EUR 10.388 billion.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 0.9 percent to EUR 3.375 billion. Orange said growth was held back by its digital press offers in 2018. The company maintained its outlook for slower growth in EBITDA over the full year compared to 2018.
Growth was supported by the expansion in convergent offers, with fixed-mobile customers up 4.4 percent year-on-year to 10.6 million. The mobile customer base reached 206.9 million at the end of June, after 3.3 million additions in H1, and fixed broadband subscribers increased by 209,000 since the beginning of the year, to 20.4 million.
Capital expenditure rose 3.1 percent to EUR 1.877 billion, driven by FTTH expansion in France. This lead to a small drop of 1.7 percent in operating cash flow to EUR 1.498 billion. Orange said it still expects slightly lower capex over the full year and higher operating cash flow.
For the first half of 2019, Orange reported net profit of EUR 1.137 billion, up from EUR 879 million a year ago. This was supported by improved operating income as well as financial income, which included a lower impairment of the group's stake in BT.
The company proposed an interim dividend of EUR 0.30 per share, in line with plans for a stable annual pay-out of 70 cents per share.
