One or two metrics were slightly up. Many others were slightly down. But overall Swisscom's H1 performance was fairly stable given the pandemic backdrop.
Swisscom CEO Urs Schaeppi likewise expects no dramatic change in the second half of the year, and brushed off the proposed Liberty Global plan to buy Sunrise Communications as something that might cause stiffer competition.
According to Reuters, Schaeppi maintained that Swisscomn was "very well placed" to handle sector consolidation in Switzerland, and that innovation – not prices – will dictate the market. "Prices will certainly not rise," he told reporters.
Swisscom continues to expect full-year operating income before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of around 4.3 billion Swiss francs (US$4.9 billion), and capital expenditure of around CHF2.3 billion ($2.5 billion).
Swisscom nonetheless expects full-year net revenue to be slightly lower at around CHF 11 billion ($12.1 billion), previous guidance was around CHF 11.1 billion ($12.2 billion) due to a reduction in roaming volume.
H1 performance
Because of what the Swiss incumbent called "improved efficiency," EBITDA totaled a shade over CHF2.2 billion ($2.4 billion), which was a small CHF32 million ($35.2 million) dip (1.4%) compared to H1 2019.
EBITDA fell by 1.2% in the core Swiss business over the same period. At the Fastweb business in Italy, when measured in euros, EBITDA increased 4.6%.
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Due to some price pressure in its domestic market, along with a drop in roaming revenue, H1 Group turnover fell 3.9%, year-on-year, to CHF5.44 billion ($5.9 billion).
Fastweb, on the other hand, saw revenue rise 5.3%, to €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion). The improvement was largely thanks to strong customer net adds at its mobile business.
Group net income was down 5.6%, to CHF736 million ($809 million).
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— Ken Wieland, contributing editor, special to Light Reading