Telecompaper
Maroc Telecom’s revenues in its home market Morocco decreased by 5.6 percent to MAD 15.32 billion for the first nine months of the year. This follows the reintroduction of asymmetric mobile termination rates in March and the liberalization of IP telephony in November 2016.
Revenues from outgoing services still grew by 1.2 percent, sustained by the mobile and fixed broadband services, whose revenues registered strong growth of 55 percent and 10.1 percent respectively.
EBITDA amounted to MAD 8.13 billion, down 5.8 percent from MAD 8.63 billion in the same period of 2016 due to the decline in revenues. The EBITDA margin was almost stable (-0.1 pts) thanks to the 0.5 pts improvement in the gross margin and the 3.4 percent decline in operating costs, reflecting the success of the voluntary redundancy plan with 1,026 employees.
Adjusted earnings from operations (EBITA) were down 8.7 percent to MAD 5.32 billion from MAD 5.83 billion. This decline was due to the drop in EBITDA and the 0.7 percent increase in depreciation charges reflecting heavy investments to extend the 4G+ network and the fibre-optic network. The adjusted EBITA margin was 34.7 percent.
Adjusted cash flow from operations in Morocco was up 8.7 percent to MAD 5.33 billion thanks to close management of working capital requirements.
The mobile customer base numbered 18.9 million at 30 September, up 1.5 percent year-on-year, thanks to the 2.5 percent increase in postpaid customers and 1.3 percent increase in prepaid customers. Due to the restrictive regulatory environment and the decline in incoming international traffic following the liberalization of IP telephony, mobile revenues decreased by 6.7 percent compared with the same period of the previous year, to MAD 9.99 billion.
The fixed-line customer base increased by 4.2 percent to 1.7 million lines, and broadband customers rose by 9.5 percent to 1.3 million. Fixed-line and internet operations in Morocco generated revenues of MAD 6.69 billion, relatively unchanged (-0.7%) from the same period in 2016 despite the 14.7 percent drop in income from international transit minutes, which is a very low-margin business.
