Telenor Posts 5% Growth in Revenues During Q1 2014

Telenor Pakistan posted Rs. 23.68 billion in revenues during Q1 2014, up from Rs. 22.40 billion it generated during the same duration last year, demonstrating a growth of 5.4 percent in total revenues.

Telenor said that this increase in revenues is mainly driven by introduction of call set-up charges and uptake in data revenues.

Financial services (Easypaisa) contributed with 2 percentage points to the overall revenue growth despite strong competition from new entrants pushing over-the counter transactions.

The EBITDA margin remained stable as the increase in acquisition costs from strong subscriber growth was offset by post-swap savings and lower energy costs resulting from several energy saving initiatives.

Company posted an operating profit of NOK 235 million ( or Rs. 4 billion) as depreciations were reduced following the completion of network modernisation, that finished during last quarter of 2013.

Similarly, capital expenditure (that stood at Rs. 3.43 billion) decreased due to completion of network modernisation and was focused towards network optimisation in addition to increased capacity and coverage.

ARPU in local currency decreased by 6%. Company said that this decline in ARPU is due to intense on-net competition and subscriber growth in lower revenue generating segments.

Telenor said that it added 1.8 million subscriptions during the quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the subscription base was 14% higher than first quarter last year. Total subscriptions had reached 35.21 million at the end of March 31st, 2014.

Average minutes consumed per user per month during the quarter stood at 268, up from 222 minutes per user per month during the same duration last year.

Check below the financial highlights of Telenor during Q1 2014: