The Board of Telia Lietuva, AB (hereinafter "Telia Lietuva" or "the Company") approved unaudited Telia Lietuva, AB Interim Financial Statements, prepared according to International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union, for 3 months' period ended 31 March 2024.
First quarter of 2024 (compared with the same period a year ago):
- Revenue grew by 1.3% and amounted to EUR 119 million (EUR 117.4 million)
- Adjusted EBITDA up by 6.2% to EUR 43.9 million (EUR 41.4 million)
- EBITDA increased by 7.1% and amounted to EUR 43.4 million (EUR 40.5 million)
- Profit for the period went up by 11.8% to EUR 18.2 million (EUR 16.2 million)
- Free cash flow went up by 57.4% and amounted to EUR 25.7 million (EUR 16.3 million)
Comment by Giedre Kaminskaite-Salters, CEO of Telia Lietuva:
During the first quarter of 2024 we continued our journey in achieving our strategic goals by inspiring customers, connecting everyone, transforming to digital and delivering sustainably.
The latest data released by Communications Regulatory Authority clearly indicates Telia Lietuva's leadership in deploying the next generation 5G communication: 93-95 per cent of the country's territory is covered by the Company's 5G network and weighted average data download speed in our mobile network during the first quarter of 2024 amounted to 263.6 Mbps. As a result, our customers are the heaviest mobile data users in Lithuania starting from the second quarter of 2023.
In response to continuously growing data flow, development of Internet of Things and other high-speed demanding technologies, we have upgraded our fiber optic backbone network (DWDM) and achieved 800 Gbps data speed between Vilnius and Kaunas.
From February subscribers of prepaid mobile communication service "Ežys" and from March - subscribers of post-paid service can enjoy the new "Ežys" and My Telia apps.
We continue to expand our IT service portfolio. Telia Lietuva is the first in the Baltic states to provide "Oracle Database as a Service" service to B2B customers.
Mobile communication and IT services are behind our continuous growth. During January-March of 2024 our service revenue went up by 4.6 per cent, while both fixed and mobile equipment sales declined by 9.6 per cent. Total revenue growth combined with costs control led to adjusted EBITDA margin increase over the year by 1.6 percentage points to 36.9 per cent.
In April 2024, the Company's Board, following the revised dividend policy that provides for the allocation of a dividend payout of not more than 80 per cent of the Company's free cash flow and not more than 100 per cent of the previous year's net profit, proposed to the Annual General Meeting of shareholders to approve the payout EUR 0.09 of dividend per share for the year 2023.
In pursuit of the Company's goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions in the entire value chain by 2030 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in our own operations by 90 per cent, we continue the electrification of our transportation fleet and construction of our own network of charging stations.
Having teamed up with Lithuanian autism association "Lietaus vaikai" (Children of the Rain) we will become more accessible to all of our customers with the help of the "Invisible Disability Sunflower" ribbon. Persons with invisible disabilities can pick up a ribbon marked with sunflowers at Telia Lietuva's customer care shops and our trained staff will be able to assist them.
Our sustainability activities were noticed by society. According to research of Sustainable Brand Index, Lithuanians consider Telia Lietuva as the most sustainable telecommunication operators in the country and ranked us in the 10th place among all Lithuanian undertakings.
As the geopolitical situation is showing no signs of easing, Telia Lietuva alongside with the other leading companies in the country, have come out with the "4% initiative", which is asking for the Government of Lithuania to find a way to finance up to 4% GDP spending on defence, including through increased taxation.
ENCL.:
- Telia Lietuva, AB Interim Report for January-March of 2024.
- Presentation of Telia Lietuva, AB results for the 3 months of 2024.
Darius Džiaugys,
Head of Investor Relations,
tel. +370 5 236 7878,
e-mail: darius.dziaugys@telia.lt
