Mobistar, confident in his new product line, maintains its forecasts

Brussels, 26 April 2012 – Today, Mobistar (Euronext Brussels: MOBB) publishes its results for the first quarter of 2012. The results are in line with the set guidance. The consolidated turnover reached the same level as last year, although the operational and net results fell. The reduction in the mobile termination rates (MTR) in January 2012 and in the roaming tariffs in July 2011 had a negative impact on the results. For the Mobistar group, for the first quarter of 2012 this impact amounted respectively to 11.6 million euros on the turnover and 5.6 million euros on EBITDA. Mobistar is pursuing its strategy of convergent services and continues to invest in its network and its customer satisfaction.

Key facts:

• In the first quarter of 2012, the Mobistar group recorded a stable total consolidated turnover of 399.5 million euros, compared with 400.9 million euros a year earlier. Without the impact of regulations, the consolidated turnover would have amounted to 411.1 million euros.
• The Mobistar group closed its first quarter of 2012 with an EBITDA of 113.1 million euros, 9.7 % lower than the 125.2 million euros a year earlier. Without the impact of regulations, an EBITDA of 118.7 million euros would have been realised. The EBITDA margin of the Mobistar group amounted to 31.5 % of the service revenues at the end of the first quarter of 2012, compared to 33.9 % a year earlier.
• The consolidated net profit of the Mobistar group fell by 28.1 % and amounted to 38.2 million euros at the end of March 2012, compared with 53.1 million euros a year earlier. The decrease in the net profit is primarily the result of a lower EBITDA and the accelerated depreciations of the network through its complete renewal.  
• The Mobistar group invested 24.8 million euros in the first quarter of 2012, or 6.9 % of the service revenues, compared to 31.9 million euros a year earlier.
• The payment of the remaining 51 million euros tax debt of 2010 impacted the organic cash-flow seriously. This amounted to 28.9 million euros at the end of March 2012, compared to 95.7 million euros a year before.
• At the end of March 2012, the Mobistar group recorded 4,186,218 active mobile telephony customers, 2.6 % more than the 4,078,457 active customers a year earlier.
• Mobistar S.A. had 433,331 active machine-to-machine cards at the end of the first quarter of 2012, compared to 229,760 cards a year earlier, an increase of 88.6 %.
• The number of mobile internet customers of Mobistar S.A. amounted to 153,112 at the end of March 2012, compared with 116,237 customers a year earlier, representing a 31.7 % increase.
• Mobistar S.A. had 233,186 active fixed telephone lines (retail) at the end of the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 17.5 % compared to a year earlier.
• At the end of the first quarter of 2012, Mobistar S.A. recorded 82,272 ADSL customers, compared with 66,171 at the end of March 2011, an increase of 24.3 %.

Full press release (PDF)