A1 Reports Revenue Growth and Income Drop in 2Q24

In the second quarter of 2024, A1 Group's revenues increased due to higher service revenues. Service revenue growth was mainly driven by value-protecting measures and growth in fixed-line RGUs in the international business. All markets contributed to service revenue growth except for Slovenia and Belarus, the latter declined due to negative exchange rate effects.

Total revenues increased by 1.3% in 2Q24 and 1.0% in 1H24. In both periods, the growth was entirely driven by the rise in service revenues, while equipment revenues declined versus last year. Service revenue growth was driven by value-protecting measures, fixed-line RGU growth in the international business due to solid demand for broadband and TV products, and growth in the solutions and connectivity business. Altogether that compensated for lower interconnection revenues and losses in the fixed voice business.

“We again saw a solid development in the second quarter. Group service revenues increased by 3.9 %. The growth was strongly driven by Eastern European markets with a significant increase in B2B Digital Services translated into an EBITDA growth of 3.8 % (excl. restructuring, negative one-off & FX effects: EBITDA +8.3 %). Despite a challenging environment in the Austrian market, we pursued our strategy in staying relevant for our customers resulting in a solid growth performance in the second quarter,” said Alejandro Plater, CEO of A1 Group.

“In mobile communications, the number of customers rose by 6.0 % mainly driven by industry 4.0 connecting IoT devices. In the fixed-line business, the number of customers slightly increased by 0.5 % year-on-year driven by broadband internet and TV demand. On top, the internet@home customer base increased by 2.2 % to 3.85 million in the Group, driven both by the increase in broadband RGUs and mobile WiFi routers,” added Thomas Arnoldner, Deputy CEO of A1 Group.

EBITDA increased by 3.8% on a reported basis. Excluding one-off and FX effects, as well as restructuring, EBITDA increased by 8.3%. CAPEX was lower mainly due to lower CAPEX for spectrum (€31 million for frequencies in Bulgaria, versus €110 million in Croatia in the comparison period. The management board confirmed the guidance for the financial year 2024 (total revenues +3-4%, CAPEX excluding frequencies, and M&A of around €800 million).