Despite crises affecting operations in Egypt and Côte d’Ivoire and an unfavourable VAT increase in its home market, France Telecom’s first half 2011 revenues rose 0.3% to 22.569 billion euros, excluding the impact of regulatory measures. Restated EBITDA was 7.613 billion euros with margin erosion limited to -1.5 percentage points.
Some highlights of the financial report:
The Group had 217.3 million customers at 30 June 2011 (excluding MVNOs), a 7.0% increase year on year on a
comparable basis with close to 14 million net additions in one year generated by mobile services, primarily in
Africa and the Middle East.
In mobile services, the Group had a total of 158.4 million customers at 30 June 2011 (excluding MVNOs), with
year-on-year growth of 10.1% on a comparable basis and 14.1 million net additions. This growth was largely in
Africa and the Middle East, which together accounted for 67 million customers at 30 June 2011, a 23.5%
increase on a comparable basis with 11.9 million net additions.
The Group had a total of 14.0 million fixed broadband services customers at 30 June 2011, representing a 5.0% year
on year increase with 664,000 net additions, including 382,000 in France, 148,000 in the other European countries
(Spain, Poland and Belgium) and 134,000 in Africa and the Middle East (Egypt, Jordan, Senegal and Tunisia).
Digital TV (IPTV and satellite) grew strongly to 4.6 million subscribers in Europe at 30 June 2011, a 27.3% increase with 977,000 net additions, mostly in France and Poland.
Mobile services performed well in France (+6.2%) and Spain (+7.3%), and emerging markets grew rapidly, rising 7.8%.
In France, the Group stabilised its mobile market share at 41% and had an estimated market share of ADSL net new additions of 22% in the second quarter.
CAPEX was equal to 10.9% of revenues, representing 2.469 billion euros in investments, an increase on the first half of 2010.
In France, mobile revenues rose 6.2%, even though the VAT increase was only partially passed through to
customers, led by the success of the strategy of segmented offers with Origami and growth in smartphones.
At the same time, the fixed broadband customer base rose 4.2% year on year as of 30 June 2011, with a
market share of ADSL new net additions of about 22%, in line with that of the first quarter;
In Spain, strong growth continued in mobile, up 7.3% in the first half of 2011, while fixed services rose 3.2%
on ADSL growth;
In Poland, mobile revenues rose 3.9%, driven by the increase in the customer base. The ADSL customer base
also rose, up 2.3% year on year at 30 June 2011;
In the Rest of World segment, excluding Egypt and Côte d’Ivoire, growth was buoyant in Africa and the Middle
East, rising 7.8%, led in particular by Cameroon, Mali and new operations.
Europe reported a 0.8% increase, with growth in the majority of countries (particularly Belgium) partly offset by the downturn in Romania. http://www.francetelecom.com
