TeliaSonera on Thursday posted a decline in earnings in the fourth quarter of 2014 and indicated that it sees little improvement this year.
The Swedish telco reported EBITDA of 8.6 billion kronor (€923 million) in the th ree months to the end of December, down by 1.4% on the year-ago quarter. For the full year, EBITDA slipped by 1% to SEK35.2 billion.
"In 2015, we target EBITDA around the same level as in 2014," said TeliaSonera CEO Johan Dennelind, in a statement.
Revenues in Q4 were virtually flat at SEK26.6 billion, but down by 2.2% in local currencies. Turnover was down by 0.8% to SEK101.1 billion in 2014 as a whole.
"In the fourth quarter, organic service revenues declined by 2.2%, impacted by a more challenging macro-economic environment in Eurasia," Dennelind said.
The telco’s Eurasia business contributed SEK5.33 billion to Q4 net sales, a decline of 1.7% on the fourth quarter of 2013. Markets such as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were particularly affected by economic uncertainty, TeliaSonera noted.
"We continue to monitor the situation closely and follow the development market by market," Dennelind said.
The CEO hinted at further involvement in consolidation in Europe.
"We continue to seek structural opportunities within our footprint with the aim to strengthen our core operations," he said, referencing TeliaSonera’s planned merger with Telenor in Denmark, a market that "has been in obvious need for consolidation."
In Q4 TeliaSonera saw sales decline by 4.2% – or 8% in local currencies – to SEK10.38 billion at its European operations, excluding Sweden. In its home market the telco generated SEK9.66 billion in sales, up from SEK9.39 billion a year earlier on the back of stronger mobile revenue growth.
"Following a period of change, we have now started our journey towards the new TeliaSonera. We have high ambitions for the future and in 2015 we will execute on our investment plans to drive growth and strengthen long term competitiveness," Dennelind said.
"This involves a further pus h for fibre in Sweden, new B2B solutions and upgrade of networks across our footprint. We will step up the pace in our business transformation, which is necessary in order to reduce complexity and bring down cost."
