Total revenues at Hungarian fixed and mobile operator Magyar Telekom increased by 5.5% year-on-year to HUF158.9 billion (USD549 million) in Q1 2019 (including its operations in North Macedonia), primarily driven by strong increases in equipment sales and mobile data usage. Mobile revenues increased by 8.4% y-o-y to HUF84.9 billion as growth in equipment sales along with a continued increase in mobile data revenues offset a moderate decline in voice revenue. Fixed network division revenues rose by 2.1% y-o-y to HUF52.7 billion, again attributable to equipment turnover growth as well as higher broadband retail service revenues. Fixed voice retail revenues declined by 4.5% y-o-y to HUF10.5 billion in January-March 2019, reflecting the continued decline in usage levels in both countries of operation, but broadband retail revenues increased by 4.0% to HUF13.4 billion, with sales on the up in both countries. In Hungary, higher customer numbers were coupled with broadly unchanged ARPUs, whilst in North Macedonia the positive impact from the expansion of the subscriber base was partly offset by a decline in price levels.
Group EBITDA in 1Q19 rose by 9.0% y-o-y to HUF46.4 billion. Net profit declined by 58.1% to HUF4.0 billion as a combined result of higher severance expenses, an increase in tax expense, and the HUF900 million impact from the adoption of IFRS 16 accounting standards.
Magyar Telekom’s number of mobile customers in Hungary increased by 0.1% y-o-y to 5.305 million at 31 March 2019, whilst its Hungarian retail fixed broadband customer base grew 7.5% to 1.170 million. In North Macedonia, Makedonski Telekom’s mobile customers rose by 1.2% to 1.189 million, with the unit’s fixed retail broadband accesses climbing 7.0% to 180,000.