Egypt: Telecom Egypt achieves 12% revenue growth in Q1 2022

Telecom Egypt has announced strong Q1 2022 results for the period ending 31 March 2022 with consolidated revenue growing 12% YoY landing at EGP 9.4 billion ($505 million).

In a statement, the company said the growth was mainly fuelled by higher data revenue (+22% YoY) constituting 74% of top line growth, followed by higher cable and voice revenues.

Below are some key highlights of the telco’s performance.

Q1 2022 key highlights

• Customer base grew across the board with fixed voice and data customers increasing by 11% and 14% YoY, respectively and mobile customers increasing by 19% YoY crossing the 10mn mark.
• EBITDA came in at EGP 3.6 billion ($193 million), recording a healthy margin of 38% driven by an enhanced revenue mix and continued cost optimization.
• Net profit landed at EGP 1.4 billion ($75 million) declining 36% YoY due to non-operational items. Excluding such items including Vodafone Egypt’s one-offs, provisions, impairments and FX impact, net profit reaches EGP 1.7 billion ($91.3 million), almost flat YoY.
• In-service CapEx/sales recorded 16%, while cash CapEx reached EGP 4.8bn including the second instalment of the new spectrum.
• Net debt reached EGP 17.3 billion ($929 million), representing 1.2x of annualized EBITDA compared to 0.9x in FY2021 due to the EGP devaluation, without which it would have declined to 1.1x, while the effective interest rate declined to 4.6%.

Telecom Egypt’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Adel Hamed said, “I am very proud with Telecom Egypt’s operational and financial performance during this quarter on all fronts despite encountering some challenges from global headwinds. The company continued to witness growth among its BUs, with top line growing 12% YoY and EBITDA margin reaching 38%, in line with our guidance. Retail led the growth (+16% YoY), thanks to higher data revenue driven by a growing customer base across all services and healthy ARPU trends.”