Orange Q1 Earnings, Revenues Down; Backs 2015 Outlook

(RTTNews) - French telecom major Orange SA (ORAN), previously France Telecom, reported Tuesday a decline in the first-quarter revenues and restated EBITDA, a key earnings metric, despite higher number of customers. The company reaffirmed its EBITDA forecast for fiscal 2015.

For the quarter, restated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA dropped to 2.92 billion euros from the prior year's 3.02 billion euros. Restated EBITDA declined 1.9 percent on a comparable basis.

The restated EBITDA margin contracted to 30.1 percent from last year's 30.8 percent on a reported basis, and was down 300 basis points on a comparable basis.

Consolidated group revenues declined 1.4 percent to 9.67 billion euros or $10.54 billion, from last year's 9.80 billion euros. The drop in revenues reflects a 1.5 percentage points negative impact chiefly due to the disposal of Orange Dominicana, Wirtualna Polska, and of Orange Uganda.

On a comparable basis, revenues edged down 0.9 percent from last year. Excluding the impact of regulatory measures, the revenues slipped 0.3 percent.

Revenues in France were 4.72 billion euros, down 1.8 percent on a reported basis and on a comparable basis. All other regions in Europe posted lower revenues.

Meanwhile, revenues in Africa & Middle East grew 10.8 percent to 1.12 billion euros on a reported basis and up 6.8 percent on a comparable basis.

The company said 2.8 million customers added to the Group's customer base during the quarter. The company had a total of 246.9 million customers as at the end of the first quarter, with 188.2 million mobile customers, and 16.1 million fixed broadband customers.

Orange has 10.9 million net additions year on year on a comparable basis, up 4.6 percent, led by growth in mobile in Africa and the Middle East which had 100.6 million customers at the end of the quarter, up 11.3 percent year on year on a comparable basis.

Looking ahead, for the full-year 2015, Orange continues to expect restated EBITDA in a range of 11.9 billion to 12.1 billion euros.

The company also confirmed the dividend payment of 0.60 euros per share for 2015, and said an interim dividend of 0.20 euros per share for 2015 will be paid in December 2015. Payment of the balance of the dividend for 2014 of 0.40 euros per share will be done on June 10.

In Paris, Orange shares were trading at 15.27 euros, down 0.35 euros or 2.27% on a volume of 2.17 million shares.