Telecom Egypt Witnesses a Steady Organic Growth in its Q3 2021 Results

Telecom Egypt has announced their Q3 2021 results. The key highlights of the results are as follows:

• Consolidated revenue reached EGP 26.4bn, climbing 18% YoY. The growth was mainly driven by higher data revenue, which made up 66% of top line growth.
• Customer base continued to grow YoY across the board, with fixed voice and broadband customers both increasing by 16% YoY and mobile customers by 9% YoY.
• EBITDA grew 37% YoY, landing at EGP 10.3bn and recording a strong margin of 39.1% on a higher margin revenue mix and cost containment initiatives.
• Net profit reached EGP 6.1bn (+73% YoY). Adjusted net profit reached EGP 5.7bn, growing 58% YoY on strong operational performance and higher investment income from Vodafone, counterbalancing a 24% YoY increase in D&A costs.
• In-service CapEx represented 16% of the top line, while cash CapEx, excluding spectrum fees, reached 32% of the top line.
• FCFF came in at EGP 5.8bn and EGP 1.8bn excluding dividends from Vodafone Egypt exhibiting TE’s ability to generate organic cash flow.
• Net debt reached 14.3bn, representing 1x of annualized EBITDA, compared to 1.6x in FY 2020, while the effective interest rate declined to 5.6%, compared to 6.3% in 9M 2020.

“Our 9M-21 results have, once again, come in strong with data being the main driver of organic growth. Our top line grew 18% YoY, mainly attributable to a 31% YoY spike in data revenue, while EBITDA climbed 37% YoY, recording a healthy margin of 39.1%. Our net profit reached EGP 6.1bn, up by 58% YoY in organic terms.

We have adopted a multifaceted, sequential approach to reach financial and operational excellence, which is one of our prominent strategic pillars, involving driving growth across the P&L from revenue to earnings through cost containment initiatives, and deleveraging and restructuring our debt to reduce interest expense. Our focus has shifted to cash flow generation and capex rationalization, in addition to visibility on dividends from Vodafone Egypt, in order to achieve positive FCFF for our shareholders and ensure its progressive growth. For the nine months of 2021, we recognized an impressive positive free cash flow of EGP 5.8bn, of which, EGP 1.8bn is purely related to the organic performance of Telecom Egypt.

Our growth rates, coupled with our strong human capital and advanced network capabilities, are making our goals of becoming a leading ICT provider and transforming Egypt into a premium digital hub increasingly attainable as we continue to direct our investments towards new technologies to serve the growing appetite for data.”

Adel Hamed, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Telecom Egypt