Elisa’s Half-Year Financial Report January–June 2021
ELISA CORPORATION HALF-YEAR FINANCIAL REPORT RELEASE 16 JULY 2021 AT 8:30 AM
Second quarter 2021 financial highlights
- Revenue increased by EUR 24m to EUR 484m, mainly due to the camLine acquisition, Elisa Viihde Viaplay cooperation and growth in mobile revenue.
- Mobile service revenue increased by 4.2 per cent to EUR 213m.
- Comparable EBITDA grew by EUR 4m to EUR 172m.
- Comparable EBIT increased by EUR 4m to EUR 105m.
- Comparable cash flow increased by EUR 16m to EUR 101m, mainly due to a positive change in net working capital.
- In Finland mobile post-paid ARPU increased to EUR 19.9 (19.5 in the previous quarter), and mobile post-paid churn was at the previous quarters level, 18.3 per cent (18.3).
- During the quarter, the number of post-paid mobile subscriptions increased by 36,700, of which 30,800 were M2M and IoT subscription.
- Prepaid subscriptions increased by 6,000 during the quarter.
- The number of fixed broadband subscriptions decreased by 5,100 during the quarter.
- The guidance for 2021 is unchanged.
Key indicators
| EUR million | 2Q21 | 2Q20 | Δ % | 1H/21 | 1H/20 | Δ % | |
| Revenue | 484 | 461 | 5.1% | 966 | 929 | 4.0% | |
| EBITDA | 166 | 168 | -1.2% | 336 | 334 | 0.6% | |
| Comparable EBITDA 1) | 172 | 168 | 2.2% | 342 | 334 | 2.3% | |
| EBIT | 100 | 101 | -1.3% | 202 | 200 | 0.9% | |
| Comparable EBIT 1) | 105 | 101 | 4.4% | 207 | 200 | 3.8% | |
| Profit before tax | 96 | 97 | -0.1% | 196 | 192 | 2.2% | |
| Comparable profit before tax 1) | 102 | 97 | 5.9% | 202 | 192 | 5.2% | |
| EPS, EUR | 0.49 | 0.49 | 0.1% | 1.00 | 0.98 | 2.4% | |
| Comparable EPS, EUR | 0.52 | 0.49 | 5.9% | 1.03 | 0.98 | 5.3% | |
| Capital expenditure | 67 | 75 | -10.3% | 120 | 126 | -4.5% | |
| Net debt | 1,379 | 1,332 | 3.5% | 1,379 | 1,332 | 3.5% | |
| Net debt / EBITDA 2) | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | |||
| Gearing ratio, % | 133.8% | 132.6% | 133.8% | 132.6% | |||
| Equity ratio, % | 35.8% | 35.9% | 35.8% | 35.9% | |||
| Cash flow | 101 | 83 | 21.0% | 151 | 156 | -3.2% | |
| Comparable cash flow 3) | 101 | 85 | 18.2% | 161 | 158 | 1.6% | |
1) Excluding EUR 6m in restructuring costs. 2) (Interest-bearing debt – financial assets) / (four previous quarters’ comparable EBITDA). 3) 1H/21 excluding EUR 10m in share investments, 2Q20 excluding EUR 2m and 1H/20 excluding EUR 3m in share investments.
Additional key performance Indicators are available at elisa.com/investors (Elisa Operational Data.xlsx).
CEO Veli-Matti Mattila: A solid quarter in an unchanged environment
Elisa continued its solid development. Revenue increased by 5 per cent from the previous year, to EUR 484 million. Comparable EBITDA improved by 2 per cent, to EUR 172 million, and comparable earnings per share by 6 per cent, to EUR 0.52.
Elisa's continued its leadership in 5G, with the most extensive network in Finland. Elisa offers 5G in over 110 towns and cities, with nationwide population coverage of over 50 per cent, and up to 90 per cent in the largest cities. Customer demand for 5G continued to be good, with an increase of more than EUR 3 in monthly billing for new 5G customers. The majority of mobile phones sold are now 5G devices.
Elisa was the first mobile operator in the Nordics to pilot a standalone 5G network in a commercial network. Elisa has delivered private 5G networks for e.g. the ports of Pori and HaminaKotka. Companies utilising private networks can benefit from more advanced applications for the needs of industry and logistics, among other things.
According to a recent study by Elisa, viewing of streaming video has increased steadily over the past three years, and it has increased by over 40 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand from corporate customers for cloud-based IT services has continued to grow. Both trends have contributed positively to revenue from entertaining video and IT services.
We continued to implement our mission: a sustainable future through digitalisation. Elisa is in line to be one of the first Finnish companies to reduce its emissions to meet the target for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C by 2025. Elisa was one of the first 100 organisations to sign the global Climate Pledge and is in the top ten of the Financial Times list of Europe's Climate Leaders 2021. Elisa also joined the Inklusiiv initiative to drive diversity and inclusion, which are becoming increasingly important as already 23 per cent of Elisa personnel work in over 16 countries outside Finland.
We will continue to focus strongly on continuous improvement of the customer experience and quality. 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 competitively creating value in the future.
Outlook and guidance for 2021
The outlook of macroeconomic environment has improved in Finland, although there are still some uncertainties. 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.
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 2021 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