Results for the period ended March 31, 2012

Q1 Highlights

• Organic local currency revenues up 8.4% YoY to $1,168 million
• EBITDA up 2.2% in local currency to $517 million
• EBITDA margin of 44.2% down 2.9 percentage points versus Q1 2011
• Normalized earnings per common share of $1.56
• Capex of $172 million, or 14.7% of revenues
• Operating Free Cash Flow of $310 million (26.6% of revenues)

Financial summary for the quarters to March 31, 2012 and 2011

(i)    EBITDA: operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, is derived by deducting cost of sales, sales and marketing costs and general and administrative expenses from revenues and adding other operating income
(ii)  Normalized Net Profit: is restated to exclude exceptional items such as DTA and subsequent amortizations, revaluation of assets, FX gains and losses on debt and potentially any non cash item that is by nature non-recurring.
(iii)  Excluding sale and leaseback of towers transferred to tower companies
(vi) Operating FCF is defined as EBITDA-Capex- Taxes +/- Working capital movements and includes proceeds from tower monetization

2012 forward looking statements

In line with our achievements over the past two years, in 2012 we again aim to strike the right balance between top line growth, profitability, cash flow generation and Return on Invested Capital. We expect the EBITDA margin to be around the mid-40s and operating free cash flow margin to be around 20% of revenues. We expect capex in 2012 to increase versus 2011 while remaining below 20% of revenues, as we invest further in data capacity and in IT and billing platforms.

Mikael Grahne, President and CEO of Millicom commented:

“In the first quarter of 2012, we accelerated our investments in our new organization structure, in our networks and in our product offering, including through pricing initiatives. In 2012, we again aim to strike the right balance between growth, cash generation and returns.

This quarter group revenue grew 8.4% over Q1 2011 when we recorded our highest quarterly growth rate of the past three years. Our strategy to focus on innovation in products and services is delivering strong results again this quarter. More than 80% of our growth is derived from products and services that did not exist three years ago. In parallel we managed to defend our voice and SMS business, which still grew by 2% in local currency.

The EBITDA margin in Q1 was diluted to 44.2%, as a result of a change in our revenue mix, an acceleration of investments in new categories and pricing pressure in some markets. We are currently implementing various pricing initiatives in the markets experiencing negative growth to improve our affordability perception. This margin is in line with our internal expectations and we are comfortable reiterating our previously communicated guidance for the year and our mid-term growth ambitions.

In Latin America, where we generate 80% of our revenues, the top line grew by 9.2% in local currency in the first quarter, in line with the average growth we reported over the past twelve months. Mobile data now accounts for close to 12% of our revenues in Latin America.

In Africa, top line growth in local currency slowed to 5.4% in Q1 with Ghana, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo showing negative growth while Tanzania and Rwanda continued to report strong performance, supported by the success of Mobile Financial Services (MFS). Margins in Africa were negatively impacted by the level of elasticity experienced so far following price reductions that were introduced last year.

In the first quarter of 2012, 26% of our customers had an ARPU in excess of $10, while only 10.7% of our total customer base were mobile data users. This illustrates the potential of mobile data as we expect all customers with an ARPU above $10 to become data users over time. We believe that cross-selling and up-selling services to our existing customers will enable us to continue growing revenues and EBITDA, while generating attractive returns.

As evidenced by the performance reported today, our future growth and successes will depend on our ability to innovate and seize new growth opportunities while defending our voice and SMS businesses. Mobile data grew 51% in Q1 2012 and we now generate more than 30% of our revenues from Value Added Services. We look forward to sharing more on the development of our new categories when we present our Half Year results.”

Conference call details

A conference call to discuss the results will be held at 14.00 Stockholm / 13.00 London/ 08.00 New York, on Wednesday, April 18, 2012. The dial-in numbers are: +46 (0)8 5853 6965, +44 (0)20 7136 6283, or +1 212 444 0896 and the pass code is 6635419#.

A live audio stream of the conference call can also be accessed at www.millicom.com. Please dial in / log on 10 minutes prior to the start of the conference call to allow time for registration.

Slides to accompany the conference call are available at www.millicom.com.

A recording of the conference call will be available for 7 days after the conference call, commencing approximately 30 minutes after the live call has finished, on: +44 (0)20 7111 1244 / +46 (0)8 5051 3897 or +1 347 366 9565, access code: 6635419#.

Contacts

Chief Financial Officer
François-Xavier Roger
Tel: +352 27 759 327

Investor Relations
Justine Dimovic
Tel: +352 27 759 479

Emily Hunt
Tel: +44 7779 018 539

Visit our web site at www.millicom.com

Millicom International Cellular S.A. is a global telecommunications group with mobile telephony operations in 13 countries in Latin America and Africa. It also operates various combinations of fixed telephony, cable and broadband businesses in five countries in Central America. The Group’s mobile operations have a combined population under license of approximately 270 million people.

This press release may contain certain “forward-looking statements” with respect to Millicom’s expectations and plans, strategy, management’s objectives, future performance, costs, revenues, earnings and other trend information.  It is important to note that Millicom’s actual results in the future could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements depending on various important factors. Please refer to the documents that Millicom has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including Millicom’s most recent annual report on Form 20-F, for a discussion of certain of these factors.

All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Millicom on the date hereof.  All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Millicom International Cellular S.A., and Millicom International Cellular S.A. employees or representatives acting on Millicom’s behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above.  Millicom does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.