Telenor saw its net loss for the third quarter widen to NOK 4.82 billion from NOK 1.77 billion a year ago, after writedowns on operations in India and its stake in Vimpelcom. The company took an impairment charge of NOK 4 billion on its Indian licences after the recent spectrum auction there, while the Vimpelcom stake suffered total writedowns of NOK 2.4 billion after Telenor sold part of its shares in the Russian operator during the quarter.
Telenor still reported a small increase in underlying results. Revenues rose to NOK 32.79 billion from NOK 31.84 billion a year earlier, with organic growth of 1.8 percent. EBITDA increased to NOK 12.46 billion from NOK 11.85 billion, and the margin increased to 38.0 percent from 37.2.
CEO Sigve Brekke said EBITDA was a new record for the company, supported by good cost control and continued revenue growth. He said a key highlight of the quarter was clear signs of data monetisation starting in the operator's growth markets Pakistan and Bangladesh, while customer growth in Myanmar also contributed to the higher sales.
Mobile subscription and traffic revenues increased by 4 percent on an organic basis, and positive currency effects also supported the sales growth. The mobile customer base was down slightly compared to Q2, due mainly to the subscriber verification requirements in Bangladesh, but the total was still up by 15 million year-on-year to 211 million. A total 43 percent were active data users.
Capital expenditure in the quarter fell to NOK 5.2 billion from NOK 6.3 billion a year ago, but is up by NOK 1.6 billion in the year to date, driven by expansion of 3G and 4G networks. The sale of Vimpelcom shares helped free cash flow increase by NOK 5.1 billion in the quarter to NOK 9.1 billion.
Telenor maintained its outlook for capex excluding licences at around 17 percent of revenue this year, after 19.7 percent in the first nine months of 2016. The forecast was also maintained for an EBITDA margin of around 35 percent and organic revenue growth of 1-2 percent.
