Eurobites: Telenor Treads Water in Q4

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ooredoo lands in Sicily; Sky and Discovery settle their differences; mobile research revealed; some better news for refugees.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

February 2, 2017

4 Min Read
Eurobites: Telenor Treads Water in Q4

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ooredoo lands in Sicily; Sky and Discovery settle their differences; mobile research revealed; some better news for refugees.

  • Organic revenue at Norway's Telenor Group (Nasdaq: TELN) inched up 0.6% to 33.14 billion Norwegian kroner ($4.04 billion) in the fourth quarter, thanks in large part to increasing data consumption in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Intense competition in Telenor's Thai, Malaysian and Danish markets, however, kept the numbers down. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) was down slightly, from NOK10.86 billion ($1.32 billion) in the year-earlier period to NOK10.79 billion ($1.32 billion) this time around. Last month the operator announced a management shake-up as a prelude to a full restructuring exercise that will kick off on March 1. (See Eurobites: All Change at Telenor's Top Table.)

    Q4 2016

    Q4 2015

    FY 2016

    FY 2015

    Revenues

    33,144

    33,487

    131,427

    128,175

    Organic revenue growth (%)

    0.6

    2.3

    1.1

    4.7

    EBITDA before other income and other expenses

    10,793

    10,860

    46,483

    44,197

    EBITDA before other income and other expenses/Revenues (%)

    32.6

    32.4

    35.4

    34.5

    Profit after taxes and non-controlling interests

    2,286

    -2125

    2,832

    3,414

    Capex/Revenues (%)

    20.8

    22.2

    20

    19.7

    Mobile subscriptions - Change in quarter/Total (mill.)

    3.4

    6.6

    214

    203

    • Ooredoo 's Tunisian subsidiary has established a new point of presence at Telecom Italia Sparkle 's hub at Palermo on the island of Sicily. The move is the latest fruit from the strategic agreement that was signed in April 2016, and it broadens Ooredoo Tunisia's international reach, providing direct access to the 19-cable ecosystem that lands in Sicily and connects Europe to Africa, the Middle East, Asian and North America.

    • Sky , the UK-based pay-TV giant, has settled its differences with Discovery, which had threatened to pull its 12 channels from Sky on January 31 over a fees dispute. As the BBC reports, no financial details have been released but the new agreement will keep Discovery's channels -- which include top tennis hub Eurosport -- on Sky for "years to come," according to the US broadcaster.

    • BICS , the wholesale carrier arm of Belgium's Proximus , has released research showing that more than 140 countries and 400 operators now offer LTE roaming services. The number of these operators using BICS' IP exchange platform has grown by 115% year-on-year.

    • More research: the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has revealed that 12 countries within the 35-country OECD area now lie above the 100% mobile penetration threshold, with Japan topping the list. See the chart below and the OECD broadband portal for more details. Figure 1: Source: OECD Source: OECD

    • Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT)'s Open Telekom Cloud and DSI vCloud have been certified for data privacy and data security chops by DEKRA, an independent testing organization that knows about such things. Specifically, the German giant's cloud services meet the requirements of the global standards ISO 27017 (for data security) and ISO 27018 (for data privacy).

    • And finally, in a world that is becoming an increasingly unfriendly place for refugees, Eurobites is heartened to hear that Deutsche Telekom has extended its refugees.telekom.de website, which, as its name suggests, is aimed at new arrivals from war-torn regions, with a central information portal, handbookgermany.de. The portal draws on the services of a multilingual editorial team (that includes exiled journalists) to provide critical everyday information for those who need it.

      — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

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About the Author

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

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