Telia Lietuva : Quarterly revenue hits EUR 100 million for the first time

The revenue of Telia Lietuva, a Lithuanian telecommunications market leader, increased by 3.9 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the third quarter of 2018 and amounted to EUR 100.2 million. This was the highest quarterly revenue since the business convergence in early 2017. The Company's EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, eased by 1.5 percent to EUR 33.4 million. The profit in July-September of this year was by 17.9 percent lower than a year ago and amounted to EUR 13.2 million.

During the nine months of this year, Telia Lietuva sales increased by 0.6 percent to EUR 281.3 million, while total revenue of the Company excluding revenue from voice transit grew by 3.5 percent. EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, for the three quarters increased by 0.8 percent and reached EUR 96.4 million, while the Company's profit decreased by 8.3 percent and amounted to EUR 37.8 million. However, cash flows of the Company leaped by 35.2 percent to EUR 43.7 million during the same period.

'New customers, better TV content, growing mobile data usage and a strong demand for equipment boosted the Company's revenue. The focus on the value creation for our customers, the analysis of big data and business efficiency has taken us to the next level of quality, which turns the daily actions of our employees into direct business results. However, we are facing challenge from our legacy systems, tough competition and total market slowdown', says Dan Strömberg, CEO of Telia Lietuva.

During the year, Telia Lietuva revenue from TV services grew by 15.7 percent, equipment sales increased by 10.6 percent, IT sales - by 10.5 percent, and mobile service sales - by 5.7 percent.

Converged offer 'Telia One' that provides customers with additional values and the development of smart TV have had a significant positive impact on the Company's results. The number of 'Telia One' users more than doubled during the year and reached 54 thousand customers in September of this year.

Over the year, the exclusive HBO and TVPlay Premium content combined with the offer 'Telia One' increased the number of fiber optic Internet customers by 6.2 percent to 290 thousand customers, also increased the number of smart Telia TV users by 5.7 percent to 240 thousand customers.

In September, a new local content TV channel 'Delfi TV' was launched in Telia TV platform alone in cooperation with the news portal 'Delfi'. During the year, the usage of the video-on-demand service increased by a third, and the number of HBO users grew more than 7 times.

During the nine months of this year, mobile data usage almost doubled (increased by 88.5 percent) compared to the same period a year ago, while mobile data usage abroad grew by 1.4 times. This year one Telia Lietuva customer downloaded on average 12.7 GB of mobile data per month.

Continuous investments in fixed and mobile networks are paying off: according to the latest measurements by the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA), the average speed of 4G connection in Telia Lietuva network is 74 Mbps, making it the fastest connection in Lithuania. Total investments in the modernization of the network amounted to EUR 29.2 million during the first nine months of this year. EUR 8.1 million was allocated for investments into IT systems under the business transformation programme.

Telia Lietuva invests over EUR 50 million in Lithuania every year and is one of the largest investors in the country. According to the data of the CRA for the second quarter of 2019, Telia Lietuva had 38.5 percent share of the country's telecommunications market in terms of revenue, making it the largest company in the information and communication technology (ICT) market.