Veon has maintained its full-year outlook for a small increase in organic revenues and EBITDA, after reporting underlying growth in the second quarter. The company also announced a small increase in its interim dividend, to USD 0.12 per share from USD 0.11.
Reported revenues were still down 6.1 percent to USD 2.27 billion in Q2, mainly due to negative currency effects, and EBITDA dropped 8.0 percent to USD 857 million. On an organic basis, revenues were up 3.0 percent and EBITDA grew by 4.8 percent, thanks to a good performance in Russia, Pakistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, offset by declining EBITDA in Algeria and Bangladesh. The EBITDA margin was 37.7 percent, down 0.8 percentage points year-on-year, due to the cost of integrating Russian retailer Euroset, Veon said.
The underlying growth was supported by demand for mobile data services, which grew revenues by 24.5 percent on an organic basis. The number of mobile customers was also up 0.9 percent year-on-year to 210 million at the end of June, primarily driven by growth Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ukraine.
Veon's net loss for the period narrowed to USD 138 million from USD 258 million a year ago. Capital expenditure rose 21 percent year-on-year to USD 402 million in the quarter, driven by Russia and the Euroset costs. Equity free cash flow excluding licenses totalled USD 206 million in Q2, little changed from a year earlier, and reached USD 540 million in H1, putting the company on track to meet its full-year target of around USD 1 billion. Net debt was up 3 percent from a year ago to USD 8.65 billion, for a leverage of 2.5x.
