Maroc Telecom Group has seen a 4.3 percent increase in its third-quarter revenue to MAD 7.3 billion, which has been anchored by strong growth in international activities and a return to growth in Morocco.
According to Telecompaper, the home market benefited from higher consumption in the mobile segment as well as successful data offers in the fixed-line segment.
For the nine months ending 30 September, Maroc Telecom revealed that revenues of MAD 21.86 billion, were up 1.9 percent over the same period of last year. This, according to the company, includes 11.5 percent growth in revenues from international activities and a decline of 1.1 percent in the activities in Morocco.
Growth in the group’s customer base reached an annual rate of 10 percent, to 39.5 million customers at 30 September. This was mainly due to growth of 21 percent in the international customer base. Nine-month EBITDA reached MAD 12.01 billion, a decline of 3.0 percent compared to last year, hurt by a reduction of 5.9 percent in EBITDA in Morocco, partially offset by the 6.2 percent rise in EBITDA from subsidiaries. The EBITDA margin fell by 2.8 points to 54.9 percent.
The operator maintained its outlook for a small decline in EBITDA this year and a modest increase in capital expenditure. Operating cash flow in the first nine months was up 2.0 percent from a year ago to MAD 7.77 billion.
According to RTTnews.com, Abdeslam Ahizoune, Chairman of the Management Board, stated, “The return to revenues’ growth in Morocco is the prominent feature of the results of the third quarter. This reversal of trend is due to our firm policy of innovation and abundance of offerings and a continuous effort to improve the quality of our services. This performance coupled with the rapid growth in our subsidiaries has led to an acceleration in the group’s growth rate.”
Darryl Linington
