Releasing its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2018, Telecom Egypt (TE) confirmed surpassing its full-year guidance, reporting a 23% increase in annual revenue, driven by strong retail segment growth. In 2018 TE generated consolidated revenues of EGP22.77 billion (USD1.29 billion), up from EGP18.57 billion in 2017. Of the total, the largest share was accounted for by the operator’s ‘Home & Consumer’ services, which drew in turnover totalling EGP8.06 billion in FY 2018, up 42% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the ‘International Customers & Networks’ division recorded the largest annualised increase in percentage terms, increasing 66% to EGP3.49 billion. Only revenues from ‘International Carrier’ service declined in 2018, falling to EGP4.42 billion, from EGP4.87 billion a year earlier.
EBITDA in TE’s most recent fiscal year stood at EGP6.13 billion, representing an 18% y-o-y increase, although EBITDA margin declined from 27.9% to 26.9%; this was attributed to an increase in advertising expenses that was only partially offset by ‘the decline in total call cost as a percentage of top line’. Net profit for the year in review totalled EGP3.48 billion, up 14% against the EGP3.05 billion reported for FY 2017.
In operational terms, at the end of December 2018 TE had a total of 5.237 million fixed broadband customers on its books, up 29% y-o-y, while mobile accesses also continued to increase at a strong rate, climbing 68% from 2.30 million at end-2017, to 3.86 million a year later. Fixed voice accesses were also up at 7.87 million at the end of the reporting period, compared with the 7.15 million recorded the year before.
Commenting on the company’s performance in 2018, Adel Hamed, TE’s Group Chief Executive, was cited as saying: ‘2018 was a truly transformative year for Telecom Egypt as its strong operational performance led it to exceed the full year guidance in absolute terms. The year is marked with the strong retail growth driven by the launch of data-centric offers in both fixed and mobile and the introduction of the Indigo Plus offering, which turned WE [TE’s 4G mobile brand] into a fully convergent brand.’