Accelerating growth and Investment as Millicom executes new strategy
Stockholm, October 21, 2013 – Millicom, the leading international telecommunications and media company (Stockholmsbörsen: MIC), announced today that its revenue had increased by 7.6% to $1,290m in the third quarter of 2013. This would have reached 10% were it not for the negative impact of regulatory measures.
Other highlights include:
- The company added a further one million new data users in Q3, bringing the penetration of mobile data within the mobile customer base to over 18%. Year to date around 5.7% of the customer base gained access to data services.
- Smartphone sales in Latin America soared from 252,000 in Q1 to 507,000 in Q3 with overall growth in data up 30% in Q3
- One year after the launch of our unlimited music service in Latin America, 9% of Tigo smartphone users have subscribed to the entertainment service. We will continue to delight our customers with more music service launches in the coming quarters
- Growth in Africa was fuelled by 250,000 new customers in DR Congo’s Kivu province in three months
- Group EBITDA reported at $459 million with an underlying margin of 38.6%, in line with the company’s expectations and guidance.
The third quarter resulted in accelerating underlying and reported trends:
- We recruited close to 1.5 million net new mobile users and over 1m new mobile data customers. Half of our new data customers became smartphone users, a clear enabler for the digital lifestyle.
- In Cable & Digital Media, we successfully managed to cross sell more services to our record net new RGUs recruited in the first nine months of the year.
- In MFS, Chad became our most successful launch to date, reaching 8.5% penetration in less than10 months
- In our Online business, organic growth reached over 25% quarter on quarter and has accelerated while costs have been contained. We have now launched our online marketplace services in Tanzania and Ghana, Tigo leading African mobile markets, and are accelerating the realization of the synergy potential.
Commenting on the results, Millicom’s President and CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht said:
“This quarter’s strong growth highlights the continuing opportunity in Africa and Latin America. Combined with the shift to data, progress in mobile financial services and the launch of new media services almost weekly, we are on track to deliver the transformation of the company into a digital lifestyle provider. In recent months our determination to seize every opportunity and demand more of ourselves and for our customers was illustrated by the spectacular achievements in Kivu in DR Congo. In tough conditions we gained an average of two thousand customers a day. That achievement symbolises our resolve to transform consumers’ lives, grow the company and create long-term value. That is why the investment phase will continue and we maintain our guidance whilst restating that it is essential to build for the future now.”
Contacts
Press
Julian Eccles, VP, Corporate Communications
Tel: +44 7720 409 374 / press@millicom.com
Investor Relations
Justine Dimovic, Director, Head of Investor Relations
Tel: +352 691 750 479 / investors@millicom.com
Visit our web site at http://www.millicom.com
About Millicom
Millicom is a leading international telecommunications and media company dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America and Africa. Millicom transforms lives and provides digital lifestyle services to the world’s emerging markets, primarily through mobile devices. Operating in 15 countries, Millicom offers innovative and customer-centric products. The Millicom Group employs more than 10,000 people and provides mobile services, access to the internet, content and financial services to over 45 million customers. Founded in 1990, Millicom International Cellular SA is headquartered in Luxembourg and listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm under the symbol MIC. In 2012, Millicom generated revenue of $4.81 billion and EBITDA of $2.07 billion.
This press release contains “forward-looking statements”, which are statements that are not historical facts, including statements concerning the parties' ability to complete the proposed transaction; the anticipated timing of the proposed transaction; the expected benefits and costs of the proposed transaction; management plans relating to the proposed transaction; any statements of operations, including the execution of integration plans; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Any statement in this announcement that expresses or implies any party's intentions, beliefs, expectations or predictions (and the assumptions underlying them) is a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks, uncertainties and assumptions which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. The forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of the date hereof, and each party expressly disclaims any obligation to update or correct any forward-looking statements made herein due to the occurrence of events after the issuance of this announcement. This announcement is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
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