Telenor reported a small net loss for the second quarter, of NOK 167 million versus a profit of NOK 1.111 billion a year ago. This follows a loss on the sale of shares in Veon and a writedown of its currency exposure to the operator. Adjusted for the loss on Veon and gain on the sale of online classifieds assets in Latin America, Telenro had a net profit of NOK 3.9 billion.
Adjusted EBITDA was still up 11.8 percent to NOK 12.719 billion, and the company raised its target for the full-year EBITDA margin. The margin in Q2 was up 4 percent points year-on-year to a record 40 percent, and Telenor expects a result of 38-39 percent over the full year, compared to a previous estimate of 37 percent. After NOK 1 billion in operating cost savings in the past year, Telenor said it's stepping up its efficiency efforts, to help face the "rapid changes in customer behaviour and technology advances".
Quarterly revenues increased 1.8 percent to NOK 31.470 billion. Bangladesh showed the strongest growth, thanks to more customers and higher ARPU, and Telenor said it also saw growth from fixed broadband in Sweden and Norway, and customer growth in Pakistan and Myanmar. Organic mobile subscription and traffic revenues increased by 3 percent.
The number of mobile subscriptions increased by 2 million during the quarter, raising the total subscriber base to 174 million. The main contributors were Bangladesh and Pakistan, which added 1.7 and 0.7 million subscribers, respectively. This was partly offset by a loss of 0.7 million subscribers inThailand. The share of active data users was unchanged at 50 percent.
Free cash flow rose to NOK 9.9 billion from NOK 9.4 billion last year, driven by improved EBITDA and lower taxes coupled with lower investments. In addition, net proceeds from the online classifieds divestment and disposal of Veon shares contributed NOK 4.7 billion. Telenor said it will share some of the proceeds with shareholders with the start of a programme to buy back up to 2 percent of the company's shares.
