Telenor 3rd-Quarter Profits Jump 16%

Nor­way based Telenor has posted a stronger than anticipated 16% rise in it's third-quarter profits to NOK 3.49 billion (US$607 million), while revenues rose by 4% to NOK 24.3 billion (US$4.3 billion). The operating profit increased by 14 per cent to NOK 4.5 billion.

Telenor's mobile operations added 4 million subscriptions during the quarter, reaching a total of 172 million.

"In the third quarter of 2009 we delivered a solid EBITDA margin, and revenue trends in line with the previous quarters this year. The strong EBITDA, combined with continued capex control resulted in a high operating cash flow," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor.

Telenor's regions

"The Nordic operations are on track to deliver on the NOK 10 billion cash flow target.

In Asia, Telenor Pakistan shows good progress towards reaching cash flow break even in 2010, while Grameenphone continued to deliver very strong results. In October, the subscription period related to Grameenphone's initial public offering (IPO) was initiated. There has been high interest related to the IPO, and trading of the share is anticipated to start in November 2009.

Our operations in Central and Eastern Europe continued to be affected by the economic downturn, however the margins and operating cash flow remained strong. During the quarter, 2008 dividends for Kyivstar were declared and will be paid within year-end 2009," Baksaas said.

"We continue to scale our activities to be aligned with the current business environment. We expect that our focus on cost control and improved efficiency will enable us to deliver a slightly stronger EBITDA margin and lower investments than originally anticipated for 2009," Baksaas said.

Posted to the site on 29th October 2009