Millicom International SA, one of Africa’s major mobile carrier and media company said its gross revenue for the third quarter fell by 2.8% year on year.
Gross revenue fell to 1,55 billion in this year compared to USD1,6 billion posted last year. The company reported that its “Africa businesses delivered 11.2% organic service revenue growth i with an EBITDA margin of 28.5%”
Tigo and Zantel, Millicom’s telecom brands has also grown its mobile subscribers across Chad, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania by 12%. Total subscriber base rose to 25,5 million versus 22,6 million reported last year.
Commenting on the result, Millicom CEO, said Mauricio Ramos:
“Our absolute strategic focus is a two-fold reconfiguration of our business. Firstly, we are driving rapid growth in mobile data and expanding the cable footprint, to reconfigure our revenue mix towards these high growth segments as voice and SMS revenues weaken further. Second, we are reconfiguring the cost structure of the business, by enhancing our operational efficiency.
“In the third quarter we made further progress in this transformation. In cable we built 180 thousand HFC homes, converting 54 thousand copper homes and adding 126 thousand new homes. Our total footprint is now close to our year-end target of 8.0 million homes passed and penetration of homes passed remain firmly on track”.
“In mobile we drove smartphone penetration deeper into the customer base, expanded our 4G networks and added 679 thousand 4G users in Latam, delivering the superior experience and higher value services that our customers want. Mobile data customers increased to 33.2% of our total mobile base and data ARPU continued to grow in the quarter”.
“Market conditions remain very challenging in several mobile markets, particularly in Colombia, our largest market, where macro-economic headwinds and continuing competitive pressures accelerated the decline in voice and SMS revenues. This significantly constrained our growth in the quarter but we are holding our price discipline, driving operational and capex efficiency gains and improving cash generation. Reflecting these changes our adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 36.1%.”
