In the first quarter, the mobile business performed well while the overall quarter was impacted by our strategic journey of investing in modern networks and structural transactions in Asia. The growth was held back by the Norwegian fixed line business and intensified competition in Thailand.
Service revenues were stable, and EBITDA was negatively affected by the copper decommissioning in Norway which is in its final year. In addition, higher energy prices, and activities related to the planned mergers in Thailand and Malaysia impacted EBITDA negatively. This resulted in an organic EBITDA development of -2 %. Free cash flow remained robust at NOK 3.6 billion in the quarter, further strengthening our financial position.
“I am especially pleased with the growth in mobile service revenues and ARPU across the Nordic operations. This confirms that providing quality networks and services in the world’s most advanced telecom markets creates growth opportunities. In Asia, we see solid growth in Bangladesh and Pakistan and the M&A transactions in Thailand and Malaysia are progressing through the necessary steps. The sale of Telenor Myanmar was closed during the final days of the quarter, concluding a challenging process in a very difficult situation” says Sigve Brekke, President and CEO of Telenor Group.
Telenor will host a capital markets day on 20 September 2022.
First quarter 2022 summary
The strengthening of Norwegian Krone against all relevant currencies during the quarter had a negative impact of NOK 0.6 billion on total revenues, NOK 0.4 billion on service revenues and NOK 0.2 billion on EBITDA before other items.
Total reported revenues were NOK 27.0 billion which is a decrease of NOK 0.5 billion as a result of the negative currency movements. Service revenues remained stable on an organic basis.
Reported opex increased by NOK 0.2 billion. Organic opex increased by NOK 0.4 billion, or 5%.
Reported EBITDA before other items was NOK 11.7 billion which is a decrease of 4.5%. Organic EBITDA decreased by 2.49%.
Capex excluding licences and spectrum fees was NOK 4.2 billion, yielding a capex to sales ratio of 15%.
Net income attributable to equity holders of Telenor ASA was NOK 6.6 billion for the quarter.
Total free cash flow was NOK 3.6 billion for the quarter.
During the quarter, the Group completed the sale of Telenor Myanmar and fixed non-core assets in Sweden.
Leverage decreased to 1.9x from 2.1x at the end of the previous quarter.
From this quarter, the financial and operational information of Telenor's Nordic tower businesses is included in the report as additional information.
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