Stockholm-based Tele2 Group has announced a 20% year-on-year rise in net sales for the second quarter ended 30 June 2017, to SEK7.988 billion (USD808 million), while EBITDA increased 50% to SEK1.631 billion. Net income skyrocketed to SEK278 million in Q2 2017 from a loss of SEK60 million in the year ago period, with the growth attributed partly to the inclusion of TDC in Sweden, as well as ‘higher profitability levels in the Netherlands and Kazakhstan.’
In operational terms, the firm added 311,000 new customers to its books in the second quarter, nearly double the net figure of 165,000 reported in the same period a year earlier. The addition of 347,000 new mobile users – mainly in the Netherlands and Kazakhstan – was offset by subscriber losses for its broadband (down by 14,000) and fixed telephony (down by 22,000) units. Cumulatively, Tele2 claimed 16.940 million customers across its operations in Sweden, the Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Austria, Croatia and Kazakhstan at the end of June 2017, up from 16.381 million reported in 2Q16.
Allison Kirkby, Tele2’s President and CEO, commented on the company’s full-year outlook: ‘We are raising our full-year EBITDA guidance to SEK6.2 billion-SEK6.5 billion (SEK5.9 billion-SEK6.2 billion previously), despite tough competition, an expected continuation of recent trends in our Swedish Large Enterprise segment, and the negative effects from Roam Like at Home in H2 2017. This reflects strong progress in Kazakhstan, improved economics in the Netherlands, and good progress in both TDC and Altel integrations and Challenger Programme across our footprint. Our investments will gather pace in H2, not least in Sweden and Kazakhstan, and we now expect CAPEX of SEK3.6 billion-SEK3.9 billion for the full year (SEK3.8 billion-SEK4.1 billion).’