Brussels, 27 February 2014 – Today, Mobistar (Euronext Brussels: MOBB) publishes its results for the financial year 2013. In a highly competitive mobile market, Mobistar meets its 2013 financial guidance while accelerating structural transformation and investments:
- Mobistar delivered its 2013 savings program notably with the transformation of its core distribution, and reconfirms its cost reduction ambition for 2014.
- Mobistar increased investments in its network by 22.8% and acquired a 4G licence to address the increasing demand for high speed mobile data.
- Mobistar was the first operator to move on the new cable regulation and entered a go-to-market phase targeting a launch before year end.
- A total turnover of 1,461 million euro vs a guidance of minimum 1,452 million euro.
- A restated EBITDA of 336 million euro vs a guidance of minimum 300 million euro.
- A restated operational cash-flow of 137 million euro vs a guidance of minimum 100 million euro.
- The Mobistar group finished the year with 5,177,658 mobile cards connected on its network in Belgium and Luxembourg, an increase of 233,155 compared to last year. Mobistar’s M2M customer showed a substantial increase year-over-year partly compensating the decline in both pre- and postpaid subscribers. The MVNO customer base continued on the trend of the previous quarter with 1,209,732 cards connected.
- In Belgium, 89.4 % of Mobistar’s residential postpaid customers opted for or were transferred to Mobistar’s attractive Animals tariff plans. The part of mobile data in the full year 2013 mobile service revenues in Belgium amounted to 47.7 %, while advanced mobile data represented 17.5 %. The latter showed an increase of 16.6 % year-over-year.
- During the year 2013, the Mobistar group invested 319.0 million euro, including 120 million euro paid to acquire the 800 MHz licence. Excluding the acquisition of the licence, the investment of Mobistar group reached 199.0 million euro, or 15.9 % of the service revenues, compared to 188.5 million euro and 13.0 % a year earlier, the majority part of it were network investments.
- At the end of the year 2013, the Mobistar group recorded a total consolidated turnover amounting to 1,461.3 million euro, 11.5 % below 2012 turnover. The service revenues of the Mobistar group amounted to 1,252.9 million euro in the year 2013, compared to 1,450.0 million euro a year earlier, or a reduction of 13.6 %. Without regulatory impact, the drop in service revenues was limited to 9.6 %, as the reduction in the MTR and roaming tariffs on the service revenues amounted to 33.7 million euro and 23.4 million euro, respectively. The trend noted during the first half year accelerated towards the end of the year due to the repricing effect propagation and a lower pre- and postpaid customer base.
- The positive effect of the transformation of Mobistar’s core distribution only started to show results in term of net adds towards the end of the year. The customer loss in the second half of the year 2013 can largely be explained by the development of convergent bundles in the Belgian market and the indirect distribution upheavals as a consequence of the telecom law.
- The Mobistar group closed the year 2013 with a restated EBITDA of 335.7 million euro, a decrease of 32.6 % compared to the same period in 2012. The restated EBITDA margin of the Mobistar group reached 26.8 % of the service revenues at the end of 2013, compared to 34.3 % in 2012. The year-on-year evolution is impacted by two positive elements booked in 2012: the reversal of the universal service provision and the release of previous years accumulated provisions for Irisnet for an amount of respectively 17.5 and 9.8 million euro. On a comparable basis, without those one-offs impacts, the 2013 restated EBITDA of 335.7 million euro would compare to a 2012 restated EBITDA of 471.7 million euro, a decrease of 28.8 % year-over-year. The regulatory drag continued to be a burden on the 2013 restated EBITDA with a negative impact of respectively 14.7 and 17.1 million euro related to the reduction in mobile termination- and roaming rates.
- The consolidated net profit of the Mobistar group amounted to 87.4 million euro at the end of 2013, compared to 185.7 million euro a year earlier. The decrease in the net profit is primarily explained by the reduction of the EBITDA, partially compensated by a decrease of the depreciations, financial expenses and income taxes.
- The restated operating cash flow, excluding the 800 MHz licence fee, amounted to 136.7 million euro at the end of December 2013 compared to 310.5 million euro a year earlier. The 2013 organic cash flow, excluding the 800 MHz licence fee, amounted to 60.9 million euro, compared to 133.2 million euro a year earlier.
- In December 2013, Mobistar was the first operator to move on with the new cable regulation scheme, officially asking the two main cable companies to provide them with reference offers.
- For the full financial year 2014 the Mobistar group aims to attain a restated EBITDA of between 250 and 280 million euro. This guidance range includes a provision of up to 24 million euro linked to a new tax law on pylons in Wallonia that was voted at the end of 2013. Mobistar plans to file a request for annulment of this law before the Constitutional Court and to file fiscal objections before the competent courts, as Mobistar considers this tax to be discriminatory and disproportionate. However, the prudence concept requires us to account for it. The guidance range also includes the impact of the existing regulatory framework governing mobile interconnection and roaming rates, which will have a revenue and EBITDA impact of respectively 23 and 16 million euro for Belgium and 13 and 7 million euro for Luxembourg. The regulatory framework on MTR’s in Luxembourg was only voted in January 2014. The provided guidance range is based on the current market and regulatory context and does not include any impact related to the cable opportunity.
‘The structural market imbalance, between an extremely competitive and open mobile market on the one hand and a duopolistic and closed fixed market on the other hand, has been worsening in 2013. In a highly competitive mobile telecom market, whose paradigm has shifted in the past 18 months, Mobistar has kept its focus on delivering its four strategic priorities. The transformation period Mobistar is currently going through is by no means complete, however. On the distribution front the transformation of our indirect channel shall be completed by mid-2014. On the technological front, the refinement of our network continues apace and the foray into 4G looks promising. The regulation of the cable presents new possibilities to build a convergent range of products, which will enable Mobistar to strengthen its relationship with its existing customers and confirm its position as clear first challenger’ said Jean-Marc Harion (CEO), and Ludovic Pech (CFO) added: 'We are intensifying our efforts to restructure, simplify and streamline our operations. But we are also reinventing our business models to provide a more cost efficient and robust platform to build upon in the future. In spite of these efforts, the regulatory and the recent additional pylon tax charges continue to be a burden.