Orange Belgium: Sustained operational and financial performance in a still active competitive environment

Sustained operational and financial performance in a still active competitive environment

• Mobile postpaid customer base +3.4% yoy / Cable customer base +27.0% yoy
• Q2 Revenues +7.5% yoy / Q2 Retail service revenues +4.9% yoy
• Q2 EBITDAaL+5.9% yoy (H1'21: +8.8%)

Q2 Operational Highlights

Commercial performance remains positive amid an active competitive environment, and lower impact of Covid-19 measures in comparison to last year. Cable customer base increased by 17k during Q2 to 366k customers (+27% yoy). As a consequence the number of convergent mobile postpaid customers increased as well. 17k new mobile postpaid additions bringing total subscribers to 2.7m (+3.4% yoy) demonstrating the success of the Go portfolio. B2C convergent ARPO decreased by 2.7% yoy to €73.6, as a result of the discounts provided on mobile tariff plans in convergence. Mobile only postpaid ARPO declined slightly by 0.6% yoy to €19.6, mainly explained by the decrease in domestic out of bundle traffic.

Orange Belgium: key operating figures
	Q2 2020	Q2 2021	change
Mobile postpaid customer base (in '000)	2,594	2,681	3.4%
Net adds (in '000)	7	17	151.9%
Mobile only postpaid ARPO (€ per month)	19.7	19.6	-0.6%
Cable customer base (in '000)	288	366	27.0%
Net adds (in '000)	8	17	101.6%
B2C convergent ARPO (€ per month)	75.6	73.6	-2.7%

Q2 Financial Highlights

Revenues reached €325.4m, increasing by 7.5%. Retail service revenues continued to grow by 4.9%, mainly thanks to higher convergent service revenues (+15.5% yoy). The lower impact of the Covid-19 restrictions also resulted in higher equipment revenues, an improvement of the SMS traffic, and a revamp in both customer and visitor roaming. EBITDAaL increased by 5.9% yoy to €91.1m, mainly driven by higher retail service revenues, supported by cost efficiencies. EBITDAaL margin reached 28%. eCapex grew by 52.1% yoy to €45.3m, mainly explained by the slowdown last year in cable installations and network deployment due to Covid-19 restrictions.

	reported		reported	reported		reported
in €m	Q2 2020	Q2 2021	change	H1 2020	H1 2021	change
Revenues	302.8	325.4	7.5%	636.6	655.9	3.0%
Retail service revenues	221.0	231.9	4.9%	445.8	460.8	3.4%
EBITDAaL	86.0	91.1	5.9%	148.2	161.2	8.8%
margin as % of revenues	28.4%	28.0%	-42 bp	23.3%	24.6%	130 bp
eCapex1	-29.8	-45.3	52.1%	-64.9	-81.3	25.3%
Operating cash flow2	56.2	45.8	-18.5%	83.3	79.9	-4.1%
Net financial debt	181.3	124.4		181.3	124.4

1. eCapex excluding licence fees. In Q1 2021 Orange Belgium paid 10.9 million euros on licence fees.
2. Operating cash flow defined as EBITDAaL - eCapex excluding licence fees
   

Xavier Pichon, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

Once again, we can look back at a quarter with solid results and strong commercial performance. We continued to prove that our Go portfolio remains competitive. We even improved our offer by increasing the data bundle of our Go Plus subscription. Although the competition was very active over the quarter, we were able to achieve solid net adds, both on mobile and convergence.

Furthermore, we demonstrated that we continue to be an innovative player, working on the company's long-term competitive positioning. We announced that we will invest in the deployment of open passive "fiber-to-the-premise" pilots in Brussels, which will help us enrich our experience and to define our future positioning on multi-gigabit fixed broadband.

As many of us, I have been deeply moved by the floods that have impacted so many people in the country. Our teams and technical partners have put all their efforts to maintain and restore connectivity in the affected areas. My thoughts are with everyone impacted, including our customers, team members and their families.

Antoine Chouc, Chief Financial Officer, stated:

During the second quarter of this year, we managed to achieve total revenue growth of 7.5% compared to last year. The quarter was less impacted by the Covid-19 measures than last year, as shops were open and roaming as well as SMS traffic started to increase again.

Our retail service revenues also posted a steady growth of almost 5% compared to the second quarter of last year, boosted by the increase in our convergence service revenues. This evolution confirms the robustness of our growth. This "growth" combined with sustained cost management, resulted in an increase in EBITDAaL of almost 6%.

Taking into account these results, we are cautiously optimistic and reconfirm our guidance.

Attachment

• ENG OBEL_ER_Q2 2021 VF (https://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/6507517d-afca-48e9-9349-e268038cc98e)