Elisa’s Financial Statements Release 2020
ELISA FINANCIAL STATEMENT RELEASE 28 JANUARY 2021 AT 8:30 AM
Fourth quarter 2020 financial highlights
- Revenue increased by EUR 11m to EUR 498m, mainly due to growth in telecom and digital services, as well as equipment sales.
- Mobile service revenue increased by 0.7 per cent to EUR 209m.
- EBITDA grew by EUR 3m to EUR 171m.
- Comparable EBIT increased by EUR 3m to EUR 103m.
- Comparable cash flow increased by EUR 44m to EUR 99m, mainly due to a change in net working capital and lower capital expenditure.
- Mobile post-paid ARPU increased from the previous quarter to EUR 18.4 (18.1).
- Mobile churn increased to 19.8 per cent (17.6 in previous quarter).
- The number of post-paid mobile subscriptions increased by 21,700 from the previous quarter.
- Due to seasonality, prepaid subscriptions decreased by 11,500 during the quarter.
- The number of fixed broadband subscriptions increased by 4,300 during the quarter.
Key indicators
| EUR million | 4Q20 | 4Q19 | Δ % | 2020 | 2019 | Δ % | |
| Revenue | 498 | 487 | 2,2 % | 1,895 | 1,844 | 2,8 % | |
| EBITDA | 171 | 168 | 1,9 % | 685 | 661 | 3,7 % | |
| Comparable EBITDA | 171 | 168 | 1,9 % | 685 | 668 | 2,6 % | |
| EBIT | 97 | 100 | -2,8 % | 409 | 395 | 3,5 % | |
| Comparable EBIT 1) | 103 | 100 | 3,3 % | 415 | 402 | 3,3 % | |
| Profit before tax 2) | 98 | 96 | 3,0 % | 398 | 372 | 7,1 % | |
| Comparable profit before tax | 99 | 96 | 3,5 % | 399 | 379 | 5,3 % | |
| EPS, EUR | 0,51 | 0,49 | 4,1 % | 2,05 | 1,90 | 8,1 % | |
| Comparable EPS, EUR | 0,51 | 0,49 | 3,4 % | 2,05 | 1,93 | 6,0 % | |
| Capital expenditure | 65 | 83 | -21,0 % | 266 | 256 | 4,0 % | |
| Net debt | 1,207 | 1,184 | 1,9 % | 1,207 | 1,184 | 1,9 % | |
| Net debt / EBITDA 3) | 1,8 | 1,8 | 1,8 | 1,8 | |||
| Gearing ratio, % | 101,9 % | 103,0 % | 101,9 % | 103,0 % | |||
| Equity ratio, % | 39,1 % | 41,0 % | 39,1 % | 41,0 % | |||
| Cash flow | 53 | 55 | -4,2 % | 300 | 257 | 16,5 % | |
| Comparable cash flow 4) | 99 | 55 | 78,6 % | 351 | 323 | 8,8 % | |
1) 4Q20 and 2020 excluding goodwill write-down of EUR 6m. 2) 4Q20 and 2020 excluding goodwill write-down of EUR 6m and capital gain from sale of Sulake shares EUR 6m. 3) (Interest-bearing debt – financial assets) / (four previous quarters’ comparable EBITDA). 4) 4Q20 excluding EUR 49m investments in shares and business combinations and EUR 3m sale of shares, 2020 excluding EUR 57m investments shares and business combinations and EUR 6m sale of shares.
Additional key performance Indicators are available at elisa.com/investors (Elisa Operational Data.xlsx).
CEO Veli-Matti Mattila: Strong performance continued in COVID-19 environment
In the fourth quarter, Elisa continued its solid development. Revenue increased by 2 per cent from the previous year, to EUR 498 million. Comparable EBITDA improved by 2 percent, to EUR 171 million, and earnings per share by 3 per cent to EUR 0.51. Regardless of the exceptional events, full-year 2020 revenue increased by 3 per cent, comparable EBITDA by 3 percent and earnings per share by 6 per cent. Skilful adaptation to new ways of working and the endurance of Elisa personnel have made it possible to achieve this strong result for Elisa.
During the year 2020, Elisa’s 5G coverage reached two million Finns, and the number of 5G subscriptions was close to 200,000. Additionally, we achieved the world’s fastest 5G speed of 8 Gbps on a commercial network in Finland with Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies. Also during the year, our 5G devices offering increased from the initial four to over 50 models, and 5G phones became the primary choice of Elisa's customers. Data usage in our mobile networks grew by 34 per cent from the previous year.
The Elisa Viihde Viaplay streaming service was launched to customers together with NENT Group, offering the widest selection of domestic original content bundled with leading Nordic and international content from Viaplay. In the growing streaming market, this new competitive offering has been well received.
We continued implementing our strategy to grow digital businesses internationally. Our acquisition of camLine speeds up Elisa's industrial software business growth in the smart manufacturing market. Elisa Automate’s network automation solution was selected by Deutsche Telekom Group companies
T-Mobile Czech Republic and Slovak Telekom.
According to our mission – a sustainable future through digitalisation – we focused strongly on providing our customers with digital services as well as ensuring a safe working environment. We continued our co-operation with Helsinki University Hospital with a robot service pilot project on a coronavirus ward to help interaction between patients and hospital personnel.
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, continue to lay a solid foundation for creating value competitively in the future.
Outlook and guidance for 2021
An uncertain macroeconomic environment is still prevailing in Finland. Competition in the Finnish telecommunications market remains keen.
Full-year revenue is estimated to be slightly higher than in 2020. 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 2020. 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 revenue growth and profitability improvement will derive from growth in the mobile data market, as well as digital online and ICT services.
Profit distribution
According to Elisa’s distribution policy, profit distribution is 80–100 per cent of the previous fiscal year’s net profit. In addition, any excess capital can be distributed to shareholders. When making the distribution proposal or decision, the Board of Directors will take into consideration the company's financial position, future financial needs and financial targets. Profit distribution includes dividend payment, capital repayment and purchase of treasury shares.
The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting a dividend of EUR 1.95 per share. The dividend payment corresponds to 95 per cent of the financial period’s comparable net profit.
Shareholders who are listed in the company’s register of shareholders maintained by Euroclear Finland Ltd on 12 April 2021 are entitled to funds distributed by the General Meeting. The Board of Directors proposes that the payment date be 20 April 2021. The profit for the period will be added to retained earnings.
The Board of Directors also decided to propose to the General Meeting that the Board of Directors be authorised to acquire a maximum of five million treasury shares, which corresponds to 3 per cent of the total shares.
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 Financial Statements Release 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. +358 520 5555
Distribution:
Nasdaq Helsinki
Principal media
elisa.com