Telecom News Bulletin

Pakistani operation, Mobilink, has shown healthy revenue growth at 4.2% in comparison to Q1 of 2009, thanks to an increased number in subscribers. In preparation for new entrants into the markets of Tunisia and Bangladesh, our operations witnessed successful subscriber uptake and lucrative revenue growth of 16% and 20% respectively, while solidifying their market positions.

Pakistan has resumed throughout the first quarter of the year reaching almost 32 million subscribers and demonstrating an increase of almost 12% over the previous year. A significant contribution to customer base growth was also delivered by Telecel Globe, with subscribers surpassing the 2 million mark, and by koryolink which counts almost 126 thousand subscribers as of March 31, 2010.

In Pakistan, ARPU in Q1 2010 decreased compared to the same period last year as a result of the depreciation of the local currency against the US$. In local currency terms ARPU remained stable in comparison to Q1 of last year.

OTH’s Market Share Calculation Method: The market share is calculated through the data warehouse of OTH’s subsidiaries. The number of SIM cards of competitors that appeared in the call detail record of each of OTH’s subsidiaries is collected. This reflects the number of subscribers of the competition. However, OTH deducts the number of SIM cards that did not appear in the call detail records for the last 90 days to account for churn. The same is applied to OTH subsidiaries. This method is used to calculate the market shares of Djezzy, Mobinil, and Tunisiana only. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, Market share as announced by the Regulators is based on disclosed information by the other operators which may use different subscriber recognition policy.

• Total subscribers were just under 96 million, an increase of 19% over the same period last year.
• Revenues reached US$ 1,216 million1 (LE 6,694 million), increasing by 1.6% over Q1 2009; and decreasing by 6.1% compared to Q4 09, mainly attributable to lower revenues of OTA by 8.0%.
• EBITDA reached US$ 521 million1 (LE 2,926 million), decreasing by 1.0% over Q1 2009 mainly as a result of the 5% tax on recharges in Algeria and the weak performance in Egypt. Q1 2010 EBITDA increased by 5% over Q4 09, primarily driven by the strong performance of banglalink and the partial recovery in Algeria.
• Group EBITDA margin was at 42.8%. EBITDA margins of the major subsidiaries were:Djezzy 55.6%, Mobilink 38.9%, Mobinil 37.6%, Tunisiana 52.6%, and banglalink 42.2%.
• Net Profit for Q1 2010 reached US$ 49 million, down 32% over Q1 2009; mainly due to the gains recorded in Q1 2009 from the disposal of M-Link; as well as the start up losses due to the launch of the Canadian operations. Net profit recovered strongly from the Q4 09 net loss of US$ 46 million.
• Earnings per GDR reached US$ 0.05 (based on a weighted average for the outstanding GDRs of 921 million over 3M 2010)2.
• Net Debt as of March 31, 2010 decreased to US$ 4,659 million resulting in a Net Debt/EBITDA of 2.1x, a decrease of 9% compared to Q4 09 where net debt stood at US$ 5,113 million with a Net Debt/EBITDA of 2.4x.

Orascom Earnings Release First Quarter 2010 – Full Report