• Commercial momentum was very strong in the 3rd quarter of 2014. France had 220,000 net sales of mobile contracts* , and premium offers (Open and Origami) represented 60% of the consumer contract customer base at 30 September 2014. In Spain, 100,000 customers were added to the mobile contract* base and 64,000 to fixed broadband. In Poland, net sales of Orange Open multiplay offers rose 62,000 in the quarter. At 30 September 2014, there were 5.6 million mobile 4G customers in the United Kingdom, 2.7 million in France and 1.8 million in Spain. There were 2.5 million net additions to the mobile customer base in Africa and the Middle East during the quarter.
  • Revenues were 9.805 billion euros in the 3rd quarter of 2014, a decrease of 2.3% on a comparable basis. The gradual improvement in the revenue trend since the beginning of the year was confirmed with a decrease, excluding the impact of regulatory measures, limited to 1.4% in the 3rd quarter after declines of 2.3% in the 2nd quarter, 3.0% in the 1st quarter and 3.8% in the 4th quarter of 2013. The improvement in the 3rd quarter, as in the first nine months of the year, is related primarily to France, Belgium and the Enterprise segment, while the Africa and the Middle East segment continued its steady growth.
  • Restated EBITDA was 3.245 billion euros in the 3rd quarter of 2014, with a margin of 33.1%, stable compared to the 3rd quarter of 2013, on a comparable basis. Restated EBITDA for the first nine months of the year of 9.385 billion euros is in line with the target of restated EBITDA in the range of 12.0 to 12.5 billion euros for full-year 2014. Operating costs were reduced by 660 million euros on a comparable basis (-3.2%), offsetting 69% of the decline in revenues. Direct costs fell 4.3% (328 million euros) while indirect costs declined 2.5% (333 million euros). The target of reducing indirect costs by at least 300 million euros by the end of 2014 has already been achieved at 30 September 2014.
  • CAPEX was 3.808 billion euros at 30 September 2014, an increase of 2.9% on a comparable basis. This is in line with the objective of a stable level of CAPEX for the full year. Network CAPEX increased 6.5%, with a large share devoted to 4G and fibre optics in Europe (particularly France), enabling the Group to affirm its leadership in very high speed broadband. Investment in mobile networks continued to be very strong in Africa and the Middle East, supporting the rapid growth in usage. The ratio of CAPEX to revenues was 13.0% at 30 September 2014, an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous year.

Commenting on the results for the first nine months of 2014, Orange Chairman and CEO Stéphane Richard said: "Orange's commercial momentum remained high in the 3rd
quarter of 2014 across all our operations, fuelled by our ongoing investment efforts, particularly in very high speed fixed and mobile broadband. In France we added a record 65,000 new fibre customers this quarter and we'll exceed the 3 million mark for 4G customers before year end, thanks to our coverage of 71% of the population at the end of September, consolidating our leadership position. I would also like to highlight both the solid performance in Spain, where convergent customers represent a growing share of the total customer base, and the notable and ongoing revenue growth in the Africa and Middle East region, which had a mobile customer base of 94 million at the end of September, an increase of nearly 10 million customers in one year. The improved revenue trend, combined with achieving our indirect cost reduction objective more than three months ahead of schedule, allowed us to once again stabilise our margin, as we did in the first half of the year. I would like to thank all of the Group's employees for delivering such an impressive overall performance, which gives me confidence in our ability to meet our 2014 targets."

the complete press release is available on PDF file

* Excluding machine-to-machine contracts.

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