Scandinavian telco Telia Company has reported a 7.6% increase in net sales for the first three months of 2020 to SEK22.43 billion (USD2.22 billion), although on a like-for-like basis (regarding exchange rates, acquisitions and disposals) sales were down 2.2%. Adjusted EBITDA dropped 1.8% on a reported basis and 5.1% like-for-like to SEK7.28 billion. Net income attributable to shareholders plunged 38.5% to SEK1.11 billion, from SEK1.80 billion in Q1 2019.
The firm says its newly established TV and Media business unit is experiencing ‘significant negative financial consequences’ from the COVID-19 crisis, which has hit advertising revenue and seen live sports events cancelled. Service revenues from TV and Media dropped 7.8% on a like-for-like basis.
The group had 16.71 million mobile subscribers across its operations in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia at the end of March 2020, including 2.41 million M2M connections, up from 16.63 million a year earlier. There were also 1.44 million fixed telephony subscriptions (down from 1.75 million) and 2.90 million fixed broadband customers (down from 2.92 million). Telia’s operation in Moldova was sold during the first quarter, completing its divestment of its former ‘Eurasia’ business.