Solid commercial performance leading to increased revenues and stable EBITDAaL, despite inflation headwinds in 2023

Press release
Embargo until 9 February 2024 at 7:00 am
 Regulated information – Inside information

Financial information for the second semester and full year 2023

Solid commercial performance leading to increased revenues and stable EBITDAaL, despite inflation headwinds in 2023

Mobile postpaid customer base +4% yoy / Cable customer base +5.5% yoy H2 Revenues +5.9% yoy / FY 2023 Revenues +4.6% yoy H2 and FY 2023 EBITDAaL remain stable on a comparable basis

Operational Highlights

The semester showed a positive commercial performance, thanks to attractive offers within a competitive environment 71k postpaid net adds bringing total subscribers to 3.3m, up by 4% on a comparable basis. All our brands were successful confirming their relevant positioning   Our back-to-school cable offers generated 26k net adds over the period, totalling 987k customers (+5.5% yoy on a comparable basis)

Orange Belgium: key operating figures	reported	Comparable1		reported	comparable1
	H2 2022	H2 2022	H2 2023	change	change
Mobile postpaid customer base (in ‘000)	2811	3192	3320	18.1%	4.0%
Net adds (in ‘000)	36	66	71	97.2%	7.7%
Cable customer base (in ‘000)	443	935	987	122.8%	5.5%
Net adds (in ‘000)	26	31	26	0.4%	-15.2%

Financial Highlights

Our more for more approach, together with a solid commercial performance, has driven revenues up by 4.6% on a comparable basis with Service revenue growth of 6.2% This growth in revenues and tight cost control enabled us to mitigate the impact of inflation (wage indexation and energy prices notably) and thus deliver stable EBITDAaL on a comparable basis for the semester, and slightly above our guidance for the full year eCapex increased by 4.1% for the full year, due to the RAN sharing implementation, 5G deployment and upgrading of the cable network to provide 95% Gigabit network coverage

Orange Belgium Group: key financial figures	reported	comparable1		reported	comparable1	reported	comparable1		reported	comparable1
in €m	H2 2022	H2 2022	H2 2023	change	change	FY 2022	FY 2022	FY 2023	change	change
Revenues	713.9	952.9	1009.0	41.3%	5.9%	1391.2	1672.2	1749.5	25.8%	4.6%
Retail service revenues	519.0	785.2	823.0	58.6%	4.8%	1009.5	1275.7	1355.1	34.2%	6.2%
EBITDAaL	206.9	272.6	272.6	31.8%	0.0%	373.7	449.8	451.3	20.8%	0.3%
margin as % of revenues	29.0%	28.6%	27.0%	-196 bp	-159 bp	26.9%	26.9%	25.8%	-128 bp	0 bp
eCapex2	-134.0	-197.6	-194.9	45.4%	-1.4%	-220.0	-292.2	-304.1	38.2%	4.1%
Adjusted Operating cash flow3	72.9	75.0	77.7	6.6%	3.6%	153.7	157.7	147.2	-4.2%	-6.6%
Net profit (loss) for the period	31.5		4.6	-85.4%		58.2		-10.8	-118.5%
Net financial debt	190.7		2224.0			190.7		2224.0

1. Comparable base includes 7 months of VOO operating figures, Revenues, eCapex and EBITDAaL and Adjusted Operating cash flow with interco elimination. Comparable figures have not been audited.
2. eCapex excluding licence fees.
3. Adjusted Operating cash flow defined as EBITDAaL – eCapex excluding licence fees.  

Xavier Pichon, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

2023 was definitely a pivotal year for Orange Belgium. The acquisition of VOO was clearly a milestone event of the year, which made us stronger in the market. We have transformed our organization to act as One company, to maximize value creation and to materialize synergies following this acquisition.

In recent months, we have also been laying the foundations of our Lead the Future strategy. Regarding the first pillar on network leadership, we recently announced that Orange Belgium is Belgium’s first telecom provider to offer a nationwide gigabit network, allowing 95% of Belgian citizens to enjoy very high broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps. We had also promising results in terms of customer experience excellence, the second pillar of our strategy with an optimization of our digital touch points and our customer relation processes. We are also proud of our achievements on the third pillar of our strategy about being a responsible company; notably, we overachieved our digital inclusion ambitions for 2023, while being on track with our CO2 emission reduction target.

2024 will be a challenging year with market evolutions but we remain very confident in our ability to execute our strategy.

Antoine Chouc, Chief Financial Officer, stated:

I am pleased to announce our financial results for the second half of 2023, which for the first time include the consolidated figures of VOO for a whole semester. Our solid commercial performance, pricing adaptations and tight cost control enabled us to offset the impact of inflation on our margin. We are proud to having slightly overachieved our EBITDAaL guidance.

Following the acquisition, we are strongly focused on executing the synergies: the MVNO migration has already been completed, the first purchasing synergies are being unlocked and the common go-to-markets will create significant efficiencies. These promising results 6 months after the closing make us confident that we will deliver the expected synergies and thus unlock significant value and contribute to our overall growth strategy.

For our 2024 guidance we foresee EBITDAaL between €515m and €535m, while eCapex will be within the range of €365m and €385m.

2023 dividend

Considering the balance sheet impact of the acquisition of VOO, the Board of Directors will not propose any dividend for the financial year 2023 at the Annual General Meeting.

2024 outlook

The Company targets an EBITDAaL between €515m and €535m. Total eCapex in 2024 is expected to be between €365m and €385m.

New Financial Calendar

2 May                     Annual General Meeting of Shareholders
1 July                     Start of quiet period
19 July                   Financial results H1 2024 (7:00 am CET) – Press release
19 July                   Financial results H1 2024 (2:00 pm CET) – Audio conference call

This is a preliminary agenda and is subject to changes

Attachment

• OBEL H2 2023 EN