Hungary’s Magyar Telekom reported a 6.5% year-on-year increase in consolidated revenues to HUF140.5 billion (USD530 million) in Q1 2018, with a 19.6% rise in quarterly operating profit to HUF15.1 billion. Net profit reached HUF8.1 billion in January-March 2018, compared to HUF4.1 billion in 1Q17, whilst 1Q18 EBITDA hit HUF41.9 billion (up 9.4% y-o-y). Underlying mobile revenues increased 4.6% to HUF77.7 billion as mobile voice revenue grew 1% and mobile data revenue jumped 14%.
Hungarian service revenue growth was attributed to expansion of the mobile post-paid, fixed broadband and pay-TV customer base, as well as high volume public sector infrastructure projects. Revenues at Macedonian subsidiary Makedonski Telekom were up 2.6% year-on-year, reflecting a slowdown in fixed and mobile voice revenue erosion. Group EBITDA growth was driven by higher sales coupled with savings in operating expenses and lower utility tax.
The group’s Hungarian mobile customer base stood at 5.298 million at 31 March 2018, down 0.1% y-o-y, whilst Hungarian fixed broadband subscribers grew 5.7% in a year to 1.089 million. The Macedonia division reported 1.174 million mobile subscribers at end-Q1 (down 4.8% y-o-y) and 188,000 fixed broadband accesses (down 0.7%).
Group forecasts for FY18 were set as: HUF600 billion revenue (2017: HUF611 billion), with EBITDA of around HUF190 billion (2017: HUF186 billion).