Turkcell Group revenues rose 17.5 percent year-on-year to TRY4.8 billion in Q1. This growth was mainly driven by the continued monetisation of 4.5G on the back of rising data and digital services usage as well as increased multi-play subscribers on both mobile and fixed side. A larger mobile subscriber base in Turkey with a higher postpaid ratio also supported this growth. Turkcell Turkey revenues, at 86 percent of Group revenues, grew by 15.6 percent to TRY 4.117 billion. Turkcell Turkey gained 536,000 net mobile subscribers, 155,000 of whom were postpaid, reaching 34.6 million subscribers in the mobile segment and 37.3 million in total.
First quarter financial and operational performance has confirmed the company's progress towards its three-year targets on the back of a continued strong trend. EBITDA grew by 44.4 percent to TRY 2.0 billion and the EBITDA margin to 42.5 percent by 8.0 percent. Net income rose 9.2 percent year-on-year to TRY 501 million, mainly due to solid operational performance and effective cost control measures despite the rise in net finance expense. Consolidated cash as of 31 March declined to TRY 4.590 billion from TRY 4.712 billion as of 31 December, 2017. Consolidated debt as of 31 March rose to TRY 15.130 billion from TRY12.536 billion as of 31 December 2017. Capital expenditures, including non-operational items, amounted to TRY 720.5 million (excluding the impact of new IFRS standards) in Q1, compared to TRY 1.807 million in Q1 2017.
Turkcell Turkey’s EBITDA grew by 40.4 percent to TRY1.781 billion (TRY 1.269 billion) with an EBITDA margin of 43.3 percent (35.6 percent) on 7.7 percent increase. The impact of new IFRS standards is TRY 300 million positive. The total number of subscribers in Turkey rose 4.2 percent year-on-year and 1.6 percent sequentially to 37.3 million. Of the total, postpaid were 18.6 million and prepaid customers were 16 million. Postpaid users rose 0.5 percent and prepaid customers increased by 2.6 percent. Mobile M2M customers grew 14.3 million year-on-year and 4.3 million sequentially to 2.4 million.
The fixed subscriber base continued to grow reaching 2.2 million subscribers on 44,000 quarterly net additions of fibre subscribers, despite 5,000 quarterly net loss of ADSL subscribers. Fibrecustomers reached 1.248 million, while ADSL totaled 916,600. IPTV decreased 5.8 percent to 535,000. Total TV users including OTT TV only customers reached 2.4 million. Nearly 59 percent of mobile customers actively used voice, data and at least one digital service, increasing the company's triple-play ratio. Multi-play users with TV+ reached 45.7 percent.
Mobile ARPU increased 9.4 percent year-on-year and 3.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to TRY 31.5, while fixed residential ARPU grew 4.1 percent year-on-year and 0.2 percent sequentially to TRY 55.3 mainly driven by increased data and digital services usage, upsell efforts, price adjustment and larger postpaid subscriber base. ARPU growth was also supported by the increased share of triple-play subscribers, who use voice, data and digital services combined, to 58.7 percent. Mobile MoU was 344.8, up 6.5 percent year-on-year and down 2.4 percent sequentially. In Q1, mobile churn rate was 4.2 percent, while fixed churn rate was 5.3 percent.
Fixed residential ARPU rose 4.1 percent in Q1 year-on-year, positively impacted by the increase in multiplay subscribers with TV to 45.7 percent of total residential fibre subscribers, along with upsell efforts. Average mobile data usage per user rose by 46.7 percent in Q118 year-on-year driven by increased usage of data and digital services offerings. Average mobile data usage of 4.5G users was at 5.8GB in Q118 and 6.1GB in March. Smartphone penetration reached 73 percent in Q118, while 4.5G enabled smartphones reached 70 percent of total smartphones.
Turkcell International revenues, constituting 6 percent of Group revenues, rose by 12.6 percent to TRY 279 million, mainly with the increase in lifecell, BeST and Kuzey Kıbrıs Turkcell revenues. Other subsidiaries' revenues, at 8 percent of Group revenues, which includes information and entertainment services, call centre revenues and revenues from financial services grew by 51.0 percent to TRY 365 million.
The company announced its three-year guidance at the Capital Markets Day on 14 March. Accordingly, it targets revenue growth of 14 percent - 16 percent, an EBITDA margin of 37 percent - 40 percent and operational capex over sales ratio of 18 percent - 16 percent. The company said it also raised its guidance for 2018, which it had previously disclosed with its fourth quarter results. While a higher EBITDA margin reflects the impact of new IFRS standards, the company expects expect to achieve higher revenue growth through the monetisation of 4.5G and digital services.
Shareholders approved the distribution of TRY1.9 billion in dividends at the AGM on 29 March. Including this, it will have distributed 60 percent of its net income since 2010. Meanwhile, three representatives of its major shareholder, Turkcell Holding, have been elected to the Turkcell board of directors.
Source: https://www.telecompaper.com/news/turkcell-revenues-up-18-to-try-48-bln-in-q1--1241646