Correction: Elisa’s Half-Year Financial Report January–June 2020
ELISA CORPORATION HALF-YEAR FINANCIAL REPORT RELEASE 15 JULY 2020 AT 9:50 AM
Correction to the English release on 15 July 2020 at 8:30 in which table legends of the Key indicators table were in Finnish.
Second quarter 2020 financial highlights
- Revenue increased by EUR 9m to EUR 461m, mainly due to the Polystar acquisition, growth in equipment sales and Estonian business.
- Mobile service revenue was at the same level as year ago, EUR 204m. The continued growth in MSR was suspended by substantial decrease in roaming revenue due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
- Comparable EBITDA grew by EUR 5m to EUR 168m.
- Comparable EBIT increased by EUR 4m to EUR 101m.
- Comparable cash flow decreased to EUR 85m (102) due to higher capital expenditure and change in networking capital.
- Mobile post-paid ARPU decreased slightly to EUR 18.1 (18.3 in the previous quarter).
- Mobile post-paid churn decreased to 16.4 per cent (18.9 in the previous quarter).
- Number of post-paid mobile subscriptions increased by 26,200 from the previous quarter.
- Prepaid subscriptions decreased by 22,700 during the quarter.
- The number of fixed broadband subscriptions increased by 1,000 during the quarter.
- Guidance for 2020 is unchanged.
Key indicators
| EUR million | 2Q20 | 2Q19 | Δ % | 1H20 | 1H19 | Δ % | |
| Revenue | 461 | 452 | 2,0 % | 929 | 891 | 4,2 % | |
| EBITDA | 168 | 159 | 5,7 % | 334 | 314 | 6,3 % | |
| Comparable EBITDA | 168 | 164 | 2,9 % | 334 | 321 | 4,0 % | |
| EBIT | 101 | 92 | 9,1 % | 200 | 182 | 9,6 % | |
| Comparable EBIT | 101 | 97 | 4,2 % | 200 | 189 | 5,6 % | |
| Profit before tax | 97 | 87 | 11,0 % | 192 | 170 | 12,9 % | |
| Comparable PBT | 97 | 91 | 5,7 % | 192 | 177 | 8,5 % | |
| EPS, EUR | 0,49 | 0,45 | 11,1 % | 0,98 | 0,87 | 12,2 % | |
| Comparable EPS, EUR | 0,49 | 0,47 | 5,6 % | 0,98 | 0,91 | 7,8 % | |
| Capital expenditure | 75 | 61 | 23,3 % | 126 | 118 | 6,9 % | |
| Net debt | 1 332 | 1 319 | 0,9 % | 1 332 | 1 319 | 0,9 % | |
| Net debt / EBITDA 1) | 2,0 | 2,0 | 2,0 | 2,0 | |||
| Gearing ratio, % | 132,6 % | 133,9 % | 132,6 % | 133,9 % | |||
| Equity ratio, % | 35,9 % | 35,3 % | 35,9 % | 35,3 % | |||
| Cash flow | 83 | 37 | 123,1 % | 156 | 105 | 48,4 % | |
| Comparable cash flow 2) | 85 | 102 | -16,6 % | 158 | 170 | -6,9 % | |
1) (Interest-bearing debt – financial assets) / (four previous quarters’ comparable EBITDA). 2) 2Q20 excluding EUR 2m and 1H20 excluding EUR 3m share investments.
Additional key performance Indicators are available at elisa.com/investors (Elisa Operational Data.xlsx).
CEO Veli-Matti Mattila: Steady performance in COVID-19 circumstances
In the second quarter, Elisa continued its solid development. Revenue increased by 2 per cent to EUR 461 million from the previous year, mainly due to the Polystar acquisition, equipment sales and Estonian business. Comparable EBITDA improved by 3 percent, to EUR 168 million and earnings per share by 6 per cent, to EUR 0.49.
Challenging circumstances due to the COVID-19 coronavirus continued. Our adaptability and innovative ways of working ensured steady performance. We continued to provide fast connections and new services for remote work and entertainment. We further strengthened our 5G position with over 30 cities and a million people 5G coverage, and the widest selection of 5G devices. Although data usage in Elisa's mobile network increased by over 40 per cent year-on-year during Q2 customers were very pleased with the quality. Online purchasing in Elisa's webstore increased by over 25 per cent.
According to our mission, a sustainable future through digitalisation, we continued our contribution to society. For example, we innovated a real-time COVID-19 situation awareness view and people’s movement data for HUS Helsinki University Hospital to track and predict the spread of coronavirus. Also, we continued to focus reducing our carbon footprint making Elisa carbon neutral in 2020.
Demand for streaming video content increased. We were the first telco in the Nordics to bring Amazon Prime Video to the market in the Elisa Viihde Service. In June we announced a partnership with NENT Group to combine Elisa Viihde Aitio and Viaplay Films & Series services in Finland. We are now offering Finnish customers the widest combination of high-quality content with a strong focus on Finnish and Nordic original series.
The continuous improvement of the customer experience and quality are integral parts of our corporate culture, and we will continue to focus on them strongly. Increasing productivity, expanding our digital services internationally and creating value with data, as well as our strong investment capability, will continue to lay a solid foundation for creating value competitively in the future.
Outlook and guidance for 2020
The current coronavirus (COVID-19) situation will slow down economic growth and creates uncertainty in macroeconomic development. A strong economic slowdown may impact Elisa. Competition in the Finnish telecommunications market remains keen.
Guidance for 2020 is unchanged. Full-year revenue is estimated to be at the same level or slightly higher than in 2019. Mobile data and digital services are expected to increase revenue. Full-year comparable EBITDA is anticipated to be at the same level or slightly higher than in 2019. Capital expenditure is expected to be a maximum of 12 per cent of revenue.
Elisa is continuing its productivity improvement development, for example, by increasing automation and data analytics in different processes, such as customer interactions, network operations and delivery. Additionally, Elisa’s continuous quality improvement measures will increase customer satisfaction and efficiency, and reduce costs.
Elisa's transformation into a provider of exciting, new and relevant services for its customers is continuing. Long-term growth and profitability improvement will derive from growth in the mobile data market, as well as digital online and ICT services.
Disclosure procedure
Elisa is adopting the disclosure procedure enabled by the Standard 5.2b published by the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority. This is a summary of Elisa’s Half-Year Financial Report January–June 2020 and the complete report is attached as a pdf-file to this release and is also available on our website at elisa.com/investors
ELISA CORPORATION
Additional information:
Mr Veli-Matti Mattila, CEO, tel. +358 10 262 2635
Mr Jari Kinnunen, CFO, tel. +358 10 262 9510
Mr Vesa Sahivirta, IR Director, tel. +358 50 520 5555
Distribution:
Nasdaq Helsinki
Principal media
elisa.com