Orange: Overall revenues down 10% to 237m euros in Q1

Revenues posted by Orange, the biggest mobile telephony operator in Romania, fell by 10.2% in the first quarter of the year against the similar period of last year, to 237 million euros, while the number of company’s clients rose by 7%, to 10.809 million.

“The rise in the post-paid customer base, thanks to intense moves aimed at ensuring client loyalty, and revenue stabilisation, are the indicators that marked the company’s performance in the first quarter of the year, despite this being traditionally a weak season,” said Orange CEO Thierry Millet. “The improvement in the revenue progression from month to month confirms the economic stabilisation prospects for this year,” he added.

Orange Romania had collected 264 million euros in revenues in the first three months of 2009, amid a 10.118 million-client base. In the first quarter of 2009 the company announced a 14% revenue decline. The first quarter is generally weaker for mobile telephony companies, as compared with the end of the year (October – December).

The significant improvement in the rate of decline for revenues of Orange Romania, from -24% in the fourth quarter of 2009, to -10% in the first quarter of 2010, is considered by France Telecom, the operator’s owner, as the best performance achieved by the group on European markets, apart from France, Spain, Poland, and the UK. The slowdown in the decline rate in Romania led to a 4% improvement in the overall progression of revenues on these markets, from -2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2009, to a 1.2% rise in the first three months of 2010.

The annualised average revenue per user (in the 12 months ended in March) continued its decline, to 88 euros in the first quarter of this year, from 114 euros at the end of the corresponding period of 2009, and to 92 euros at the end of December 2009.

Revenues from the company’s telecom services amounted to 214 million euros, down 11% on last year, whilst revenues from sales of mobile phones, SIM cards, and other equipment, amounted to 23 million euros, down 4%, according to data in the France Telecom report.

The only segment that did not see a revenue decline was the data and Internet services segment: Orange collected around 30 million euros both in the first quarter of 2010, and in the first quarter of 2009.

“Revenues derived from data services accounted for 13.8% of service revenues reported in the first quarter, up from 12.4% last year. The rise of data services revenues reflects an improved degree of adoption of high-speed mobile Internet services, available on mobile phones and on PCs across Romania. Alongside the coverage of Orange’s data network, another factor that contributed significantly to this rise was the introduction of smartphone offers. Smartphone sales doubled in the first quarter of this year against the similar period of last year,” Orange said.