Danish telco TDC, the country’s leading operator in terms of subscribers, has published its financial results for the nine months ended 30 September 2018, reporting a 0.2% growth in revenues to DKK13.001 billion (USD1.97 billion), up from DKK12.978 billion in 9M17. The company attributed the development to a sustained decline in revenues generated by the Business and Wholesale divisions in its domestic market (-5.5% and -1.3% y-o-y respectively), which was partly offset by growth in Consumer (up 2.1%) and other operations (up 7.2%). Meanwhile, EBITDA decreased by 2.7%, from DKK5.268 billion in 9M17 to DKK5.127 billion twelve months later, while gross profit totalled DKK9.373 billion (down 2.0% y-o-y). Profit for the period also decreased, to DKK828 million (down by 43.1% y-o-y), while excluding discontinued operations and ‘special items’ profit fell by 9.8%, due to higher interest expenses related to the refinancing in Q2 2018, which was triggered by DK Telekommunikation’s takeover of TDC. Capital expenditure decreased by 5.7% y-o-y to DKK2.460 billion in 9M18, due to higher investment in 2017 related to a cable upgrade project.
TDC noted that Get Norway is treated as discontinued operation in the reports from Q3 2018, following the divestment of the unit to Sweden-based Telia Company for a cash sale price of USD2.6 billion (completed on 15 October 2018). A substantial part of the proceeds was applied towards prepayment at par of the Term Loan B (TLB) under TDC’s Senior Facility Agreement. Meanwhile, the acquisition of Danish broadband provider Hiper (which will become part of Consumer) is expected to have an impact on financials from Q4 2018.