News
Danish incumbent reports 11.6% decline in third-quarter earnings.
TDC on Wednesday raised its full-year guidance after completing the bulk of its major transformation projects planned for 2016.
The Danish incumbent said it has successfully merged its domestic TDC and YouSee brands, carrying out the associated IT migration and correcting all the inevitable problems that these things cause.
It has also completed the simplification programme at its Danish B2B operation. Meanwhile, this week TDC also completed the sale of its Swedish B2B arm, TDC Sweden, to Tele2.
"We have now completed the majority of the very large and complex transformation projects planned for 2016, leaving only limited risk for the remainder of the year," said TDC chief executive Pernille Erenbjerg, in a statement.
Despite the upbeat outlook, TDC reported that third quarter EBITDA fell 11.6% year-on-year to DKK2.17 billion, while revenue slipped 2.3% to DKK5.24 billion, as weakness in Denmark offset solid growth in Norway.
Revenue in Denmark came in at DKK4.51 billion, down from DKK4.66 billion a year earlier, led by declining business revenue, which fell to DKK1.26 billion from DKK1.38 billion. EBITDA in Denmark dropped 10.1% year-on-year to DKK1.83 billion.
However, gross profit in Denmark edged up for the second consecutive quarter, which Erenbjerg said reflects improving trends in both the consumer and business divisions.
"This is an important driver for fulfilling our ambition of moving towards growth in 2018," she said.
TDC’s Norway arm fared better, with revenue inching up to DKK758 million from DKK757 million a year ago, while EBITDA climbed 10.8% – excluding a one-off gain recorded in Q3 2015 – to DKK330 million.
"Q3 was another strong quarter for our Norwegian division," said Erenbjerg. TDC’s Norwegian cableco Get "is progressing well with becoming a market player offering full-scale solutions."
Indeed, shortly after the end of the third quarter, Get began offering mobile services and launched a mobile fire alarm service called Get Safe.
"Both initiatives will fuel future growth and have a positive churn effect on Get’s TV and broadband customers," Erenbjerg predicted.
