During the second quarter of 2017, compared with the same quarter of 2016, the revenue of Telia Lietuva, a provider of telecommunications, IT, and TV services, increased by 12.4 per cent and amounted to EUR 94.6 million. The Company's EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, amounted EUR 29.2 million, i.e. 0.3 per cent higher than a year ago, while EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, margin was 30.9 per cent.

During the first six months of 2017, revenue increased by almost 8 per cent and amounted to EUR 179.9 (for comparison: revenue for the first six months of 2016 exceeded revenue in 2015 by 2.8 per cent). EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, amounted to EUR 58.4 million and remained at the same level as a year ago, while EBITDA, excluding non-recurring items, margin stood at 32,5 per cent during the first six months. Free cash flows comprised EUR 15.8 million.

Despite the market being saturated and very competitive, the number of the Company's customers increased as well. In comparison with the data of the first six months of 2016, the number of smart TV users and fibre-optic Internet users increased by 12.1 and 7.9 percent, respectively, while the number of active users of post-paid mobile telecommunications increased by 4.5 per cent.

'The first six months of 2017 were extraordinary for us. We finished the companies' merger process and became Telia Lietuva. In addition, for two years in a row we observe a stable revenue growth and ensured continuous investments into the quality of services and the network. Also, we have been actively preparing for the day when essentially no roaming fees were left in Europe and we made sure that residents of Lithuania would still be able to use exceptionally cheap mobile telecommunications. In addition, we offered new services and opportunities: hybrid Internet, cloud computing, new mobile communications service plans, Xiaomi smartphones. This allowed retaining existing clients and attracting new ones,' says Kęstutis Šliužas, CEO of Telia Lietuva.

The increasing number of clients caused an increase of revenue from particular services of Telia Lietuva. Revenue from equipment sales during the first half of 2017, in comparison with the same period last year, increased by almost a fifth (18.7 per cent), while revenue from retail mobile communications services and broadband Internet services increased by 7.3 and 3.4 per cent, respectively. The overall growth of revenue was also caused by higher that a year ago revenue from networks' interconnection services.

The growth of revenue from mobile communications services was mostly caused by a significant increase in the usage of mobile data. During the first half of this year, Telia Lietuva customers used 1.7 times more mobile data than during the same period in 2016: 18 terabytes of data in total.

This trend, according to K. Šliužas, causes not only the growth of the Company's revenue, but also increasing investments into network modernisation and higher Internet speed.

During the first six months of 2017, Telia Lietuva invested a total of EUR 26.9 million into network upgrades and other infrastructure modernisation projects, i.e. 14.5 percent more than during the same period last year. Investments into mobile network amounted to EUR 7.8 million, investments into upgrade of IT systems - EUR 8.2 million, and an amount of EUR 9.4 million was invested in the fixed network.

This year, the company started the largest IP network equipment modernisation project in its history and installed base stations of the newest mobile communication technology '4.5G / LTE Advanced Pro', which allow users to download data at up to 500 Mb/s, in five major cities. Currently Telia Lietuva has 1,786 4G base stations in total and covers 99 percent of the territory of Lithuania.

Telia Lietuva AB published this content on 20 July 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 20 July 2017 05:13:11 UTC.

Original documenthttps://www.telia.lt/eng/for-media/press-releases/telia-lietuva-revenue-grew-due-to-increased-number-of-customers-and-new-services

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