12.11.2020 07:00:01 CET | Ice Group ASA | Half yearly financial reports and
audit reports / limited reviews

Ice Group reached several important milestones and continued the positive
operational development in Q3 2020. The Group delivers positive adj. EBITDA for
the third quarter in a row in Q3 and smartphone service revenues grew by 13
percent versus the same quarter last year. 

"We reached several important milestones and continued the positive operational
development in Q3 2020. In late August we issued a new convertible bond of NOK
689 million. With this bond issue, we expect to have a fully financed business
plan with sufficient liquidity to reach cash flow break even and reach our
operational and financial targets. This is a major milestone for the Group and
allows us to continue our growth in the Norwegian market and continue building a
strong mobile network in Norway," says Eivind Helgaker, CEO of Ice Group.

"In September we agreed on a new national roaming agreement (NRA) with Telia.
The new NRA has a price structure in line with the new "Market-15" regulation
implemented from 1 June 2020. The new agreement will lower our NRA costs
significantly and is very important for improving our profitability," says
Eivind Helgaker, CEO of Ice Group.

"In Q3 we had 226 new smartphone base stations on air, delivering on our mission
of building the third mobile network in Norway. This is in line with Norwegian
authorities' ambitions to work for a more open and competitive telecom market in
Norway," says Eivind Helgaker, CEO of Ice Group.

"We see that the increased coverage of our network is improving the on-net
share, and we now have days peaking at on-net share of 90 percent. We are very
pleased to see that the quality of our network and the speed of the build-out is
improving despite challenges related to the Covid-19 outbreak. Everything we
build is with Nokia 5G-ready equipment and we are well on our way in testing and
preparing for a commercial 5G launch," says Eivind Helgaker, CEO of Ice Group.

"We continue to grow market share in the Norwegian market, and we added 20,000
new subscribers in Q3. According to the NKOM H1 2020 statistics, Ice continues
to be the operator in the Norwegian market with the highest growth in number of
subscribers. Our digital sales channels are delivering strong results, and we
have also received very positive feedback from our own retail stores and have
decided to expand this trial by rolling out additional four retail stores in the
coming period, improving our own distribution further. We are confident that our
own retail will be an important part of the sales channel mix going forward,"
says Eivind Helgaker, CEO of Ice Group.

"Continued network build-out, lower national roaming costs and smartphone
subscription growth remain key to realizing Ice Group's business plan. I would
like to give credit to our team for making very important contributions during a
demanding period. We have now delivered 22 consecutive quarters of smartphone
subscription growth and remain confident that we will continue to win market
share and improve margins strongly going forward due to reduced national roaming
costs and scale economics," says Eivind Helgaker, CEO of Ice Group.

Ice Group invites to a live presentation of the results at 08:00 (CET) today.
CEO Eivind Helgaker and CFO Henning Karlsrud will present. Investors, analysts,
lenders and media are invited to follow the webcast on 
https://channel.royalcast.com/hegnarmedia/#!/hegnarmedia/20201112_2. A recording
of the presentation will be available on our web site shortly after the live
webcast has ended.

DISCLAIMER

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section
5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

CONTACTS

 * Espen Risholm, Head of investor relations, +47 924 80 248,
   espen.risholm@icegroup.com 

ABOUT ICE GROUP ASA

Ice Group is a telecommunications company with a nationwide network in Norway.
The company operates a pure 4G mobile network, providing smartphone, m2m, IoT
and mobile broadband services to B2C and B2B customers. 

ATTACHMENTS

 * Download announcement as PDF.pdf
   [https://kommunikasjon.ntb.no/ir-files/17847219/172/197/Download%20announceme
   nt%20as%20PDF.pdf]
 * Interim Report Q3 2020.pdf
   [https://kommunikasjon.ntb.no/ir-files/17847219/172/193/Interim%20Report%20Q3
   %202020.pdf]
 * Presentation of Q3 2020.pdf
   [https://kommunikasjon.ntb.no/ir-files/17847219/172/196/Presentation%20of%20Q
   3%202020.pdf]

Click here for more information

© Oslo Bors ASA, source Oslo Stock Exchange