Mobistar announced today its results for the end of the third quarter of 2008. Thanks to consistently executing its strategy, Mobistar can present growth figures, even in a competitive market with persistent pressure from regulatory authorities and an unfavourable economic climate.
Key facts
The Mobistar group registers a 10.0 % growth in its customer base in a year. The number of customers grew from 3,411,232 active customers at the end of September 2007 to 3,752,491 active customers at the end of the third quarter of 2008.
On 30 September 2008, the Mobistar group showed an increase in consolidated turnover, despite the impact of the regulatory measures which amounted to 81.5 million euro during the first nine months of the year. At the end of September 2008 consolidated turnover amounted to 1,139.3 million euro, compared to 1,125.1 million euro at the end of September 2007, or an increase of 1.3 %.
The increase in the number of customers and increased usage of both voice and data, delayed the decrease of the ARPU, which continues to be pressured by the decreasing MTR and roaming rates. The regulatory impact on the ARPU is -2.4 euro. The ARPU decreased by 7.8 % from 35.6 euro per month per customer at the end of September 2007 to 32.83 euro per month per customer at the end of September 2008, compared to 33.13 euro per customer at the end of June 2008.
The EBITDA margin remained stable at 41.5 % of service revenues thanks to an efficient cost policy, among others.
The good results of the first nine months of 2008 allow Mobistar to confirm its outlook for the full year 2008, as announced at the end of the first semester (revenue decrease of 0 to 2 %, EBITDA margin of at least 40 %, investment level of about 10 % of service revenues and decrease by 2 to 4 % of the net result per share, in accordance with the expected number of shares on the market at the end of December 2008), and this despite the competitive and regulatory pressure and an economically unfavourable climate.