How well is Orange currently performing in Central and Eastern Europe?
In general comments in its latest set of results, the company notes that in Europe as a whole, its revenues are being driven by convergence. Furthermore, in revenue terms, its operation in Poland has returned to growth.
Looking at the KPIs, Orange provides detailed figures for Poland but unfortunately groups those for Romania, Slovakia and Moldova in a single ‘Central Europe’ category. Hence, without delving into results published by individual operations, we can only get a general overview.
In Central Europe, Orange’s operations ended Q3 with 650,000 IPTV and DTH subscribers, up from 534,000 in the same period last year. They also had 471,000 (357,000) fixed broadband customers, with just under half (211,000, 148,000 in Q3 2017) opting for FTTH and cable.
Romania was Orange’s main fixed broadband market, accounting for 241,000 customers as of the end of this September. This figure included those opting for fixed-4G (fLTE) offers.
In Poland, on the other hand, Orange’s IPTV and DTH customers base is edging up to the one million mark, which it is likely to reach at some stage in 2019. As of Q3, it stood at 921,000, up from 814,000 in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, its fixed broadband customer total stood at 2,530,000, up from 2,377,000 in Q3 2017.
As we know, Orange Polska is currently making a big push in building its fibre network. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that its FTTH customer total effectively doubled in the year to September 30, from 176,000 to 324,000.
In revenue terms, Poland posted a figure of €640 million in Q3, or 1.5% more than a year earlier. Central Europe, on the other hand, claimed 456,000, up 1.8% on Q3 2017. Adjusted EBITDA was €328 million (+3.8%) in the case of Poland and €282 million (-4.6%) for Central Europe.
All in all, we can conclude that Orange’s operations in CEE had a good third quarter. Although challenges undoubtedly lie ahead, their prospects for the rest of the year and into 2019 at this stage look promising.
