Maroc Telecom, the country’s leading telco in terms of subscribers, has published its financial results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2015, reporting a 17.1% annual increase in revenues, from MAD29.144 billion (USD3 billion) to MAD34.134 billion. The improvement was chiefly attributed to 62.3% annual growth among the company’s international operations (6.9% on a ‘like-for-like’ basis), which offset a 0.6% sales decrease in its domestic market during the same period. Meanwhile, Maroc Telecom’s EBITDA increased by 6.7% in the period under review, to MAD16.742 billion; the company disclosed that the 3.8% decline in the Moroccan unit’s EBITDA was partly compensated by a 10.8% increase in EBITDA from the company’s international operations. Maroc Telecom’s consolidated earnings from operations in the period under review reached MAD10.340 billion, a marginal 0.7% increase year-on-year, while net income amounted to MAD5.595 billion, down by 4.3% when compared to 2014.
The operator also published its outlook for 2016, forecasting stable revenues, a slight decrease in EBITDA, and CAPEX amounting to around 20% of revenues (excluding spectrum and licences).
In operational terms, Maroc Telecom reported annualised growth of 26.0% for its consolidated customer base, with the total number of customers passing the 50 million-mark at end-December 2015. In Morocco, wireless subscribers marginally increased by 0.4% y-o-y to reach 18.298 million, up from 18.230 million in 2014; the telco’s wireline user base grew by 6.8% to 1.583 million users, while broadband customers increased by 15.4% y-o-y to 1.136 million. In Mauritania, wireless numbers increased by 10.3% to 2.121 million users, despite a ‘ban on the sale of unidentified SIM cards by the regulatory authorities’, while broadband subscriptions increased by 21.5% to roughly 10,000. In Burkina Faso, the Office Nationale des Telecommunications (Onatel) saw its mobile subscribers increase by 23.6% y-o-y to reach 6.760 million by 31 December, although its broadband customer base declined by 8.8% to around 15,000. Further, newly acquired Moov Niger reported a 33.8% increase in the number of its mobile users, to 810,000, while Mali-based operator Societe des Telecommunications du Mali (SOTELMA) decreased its mobile subscriber numbers 30.4% to 7.431 million in 2015, losing more than three million net users in the period under review.
Abdeslam Ahizoune, chairman of Maroc Telecom’s management board, stated: ‘Maroc Telecom Group is finishing fiscal 2015 with results that exceed its objectives and which confirm the Group’s growth profile. The major capital investments in very high speed mobile and fixed-line broadband consolidate our leadership in Morocco. The successful integration of the new African subsidiaries strengthens the success of the Group’s international expansion. Maroc Telecom Group is tackling fiscal 2016 with confidence, despite the still uncertain regulatory, economic and competitive environments backed by the quality of its teams and its continuing policy based on innovation and investment.’