Turk Telekom saw its revenues grow 16.3 percent year-on-year to TRY 5.8 billion. Excluding IFRIC 12, revenue growth was 16.4 percent compared to 2018, in line with company expectations. The number of total Turk Telekom subscribers reached 47.0 million, with 320,000 net additions in Q2. Net subscriber additions were 3.5 million during the last twelve months.
EBITDA grew by 36.2 percent year-on-year to TRY 2.7 billion, with a strong EBITDA margin of 46.5 percent. Excluding the IFRS 16 impact, the EBITDA margin in Q2 at 43.1 percent was 3.4 percent higher than Q2 2018 thanks to robust revenue performance and successful efficiency measures, the company said.
Operating profit was TRY 1.5 billion after 42.7 percent year-on-year growth. Net income improved to TRY 435 million in Q2 compared to a TRY 870 million net loss in Q2 2018. The turnaround was driven by strong underlying operating performance and lower financial expenses in Q2.
Capex reached TRY 930 million, up by TRY 93 million year-on-year. Unlevered free cash flow generated in Q2 was TRY 1.4 billion, up compared to TRY 1.1 billion in Q2 2018 thanks to robust EBITDA performance. Excluding IFRS impact, unlevered cash flow was still strong at TRY 1.2 billion.
The group’s net FX exposure decreased to USD 794 million from USD 2.353 billion in Q2 2018. The sensitivity of the P&L statement to forex movements continued to decrease with the new hedge transactions and deleveraging, the company said.
With a strong EBITDA performance and deleveraging, net debt declined from 1.86x EBITDA in March to 1.76x in June.
Subscriber numbers
The total number of access lines increased by 2.9 percent year-on-year to 14.5 million, while fixed voice ARPU grew 2.4 percent year-on-year to TRY 22.8.
The broadband subscriber base increased to 11.1 million with 82,000 net additions in Q2. Broadband ARPU was up 11.3 percent year-on-year to TRY 48.6. In Q2, the fibre subscriber base reached 3.8 million, with 21 percent growth year-on-year.
The total number of TV subscribers grew 11.2 percent to 3.6 million. TV ARPU was down 3.9 percent year-on-year to TRY 15.9.
The mobile subscriber base increased to 22.4 million with 276,000 net additions in Q2. Postpaid performance was particularly strong with a net gain of 488,000, the highest second quarter postpaid net additions over the last decade. The postpaid ratio reached 59 percent, up by 1.5 percent in a single quarter.
The share of LTE users in the mobile subscriber base increased to 50 percent in Q2 from 41 percent in Q2 2018. Average monthly data usage per LTE user increased to over 7 GB in June.
Mobile blended ARPU grew 8.5 percent to TRY 32.8.
Raised guidance for 2019
The company decided to revise upwards its 2019 guidance on EBITDA on the back of strong operational profitability in H1. Revenue growth (excluding IFRIC 12) is expected to be around 15-16 percent over 2018, EBITDA is estimated at TRY 10.3-10.5 billion and capex around TRY 4.6-4.8 billion.
