- Orange is accelerating the implementation of its Lead the Future strategic plan
- 2024 targets fully achieved: EBITDAaL +2.7% year on year and Organic Cash Flow of 3.4 billion euros
- Orange confirms its 2025 targets and raises its Organic Cash Flow target to at least 3.6 billion euros
Commenting on these results, Christel Heydemann, Chief Executive Officer of the Orange group, said:
“These results clearly demonstrate the successful execution of our Lead the Future strategic plan. Group revenue and EBITDAaL growth, in line with objectives, was rooted in outstanding operational achievements, strong commercial momentum across all geographies and continued discipline on cost control. The creation of MASORANGE in Spain, the successful connectivity of the Paris Olympic Games and the roll-out of Max-It in Africa are concrete examples recognized by all.
2024 marked a return to EBITDAaL growth in France where our excellent network and service quality allowed us to maintain our leadership position.
The Africa & Middle East region once again delivered a robust performance, driven by its growth engines, namely mobile data, fixed broadband, B2B and Orange Money. Orange now has over 160 million mobile customers and almost 40 million Orange Money customers on the continent. Orange’s activities are a genuine lever for economic development in these countries – progress from which the Group also benefits.
Orange Business continued to reposition itself in line with the growing use of digital technology such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Orange Cyberdefense maintained its trend of strong revenue growth and positioned itself as a European leader in cybersecurity for large groups and SMEs, with its expertise deployed in 130 countries.
Against a backdrop of technological change characterized by the development of generative AI and its impressively rapid adoption, Orange is fully playing its part by integrating this technology into its infrastructure and offering reliable solutions that are of real use to its customers, partners and employees.
I welcome the new employment and professional development agreement, signed with our unions in France on 10 February, which demonstrates the quality of our social dialogue. This sets out the employment framework for the next three years and will allow us to train, recruit and support our teams to best respond to changes in our competitive and technological environment.
I would like to sincerely thank all Orange employees for their achievements and their commitment throughout the year, as well as our customers for the trust they place in us every day. As we head into the final year of our plan, we are confident in our ability to meet all our targets, including our newly upgraded Organic Cash Flow target.”
2024 revenues were 40,260 million euros, up 1.2% year on year[1] (+487 million euros) thanks to growth in retail services (+2.7% or +794 million euros) and a smaller decline in wholesale services (-5.2% or -325 million euros) mainly related to higher unbundling and civil engineering rates in France in the first quarter. Other revenues (+6.0% or +59 million euros) offset the decline in equipment sales (-1.4% or -41 million euros).
- Africa & Middle East is the main contributor to this growth, with revenues up 11.1% (+770 million euros), driven by increases from its four growth engines (+18.4% in Mobile data, +19.5% in Fixed broadband, +20.4% for Orange Money and +12.5% in B2B across all activities).
- Revenues in France increased 0.4% (+79 million euros) thanks to growth in retail services excluding PSTN[2] (+2.6%), and a smaller decline in wholesale services (-3.9%).
- Europe declined (-2.1% or -155 million euros) due to wholesale services (-13.9% or -131 million euros) and other low-margin activities, while retail services excluding IT and Integration Services grew 1.3% (+58 million euros).
- The decrease in Orange Business revenues (-2.1% or -169 million euros) was again due to the decline in Fixed-only revenues (-8.1% or -261 million euros). Revenue growth for Orange Cyberdefense was dynamic (+11.2% or +120 million euros), while IT and integration services were up slightly (+2.7% or +102 million euros) in a complex IT market.
- In terms of commercial performance, the Group maintained its leadership position in convergence in Europe (including France), with a total of 9.1 million convergent customers (+1.0%), as well as its commercial momentum in mobile contracts and very high-speed fixed broadband accesses. Mobile services had 253.0 million accesses worldwide (+7.1%) including 94.6 million contracts (+7.8%). Fixed services had 38.3 million accesses worldwide (-3.2%) of which 14.6 million were very high-speed broadband accesses, an area of continued solid growth (+13.5%).
In line with the target of slight growth in 2024, Group EBITDAaL was 12,109 million euros, up 2.7% year on year (+322 million euros) having accelerated steadily throughout year to reach +3.2% in the fourth quarter.
EBITDAaL from telecom activities reached 12,227 million euros (+2.6%).
In France, a return to EBITDAaL growth was confirmed, after accelerating in the second half (+0.6% following +0.3% in H1, resulting in +0.5% for the year). Africa & Middle East (+13.1%) and Europe (+3.9%) performed very well, while Orange Business maintained its improving EBITDAaL trend (-6.0% in H2 following -11.3% in H1, leading to -8.4% for the year).
Operational efficiency is a major priority, and the Group achieved two-thirds of its Efficiency program objective (i.e. around 400 million euros in savings out of a target of 600 million euros in 2025[3]) and is implementing new measures in three areas: operational efficiency (a new agreement on the French Part-Time for Seniors plan was signed on 10 February), procurement optimization and the use of artificial intelligence where more than one hundred and fifty operational use cases generated nearly 200 million euros in value in 2024.
eCAPEX, which was in line with the Group’s target of around 15% in 2024, was 6,259 million euros, up 2.9% (+174 million euros), representing 15.5% of revenue. The main contributor to this increase was Africa & Middle East (+9.9% or +119 million euros), in support of growth. At 31 December 2024, Orange had 60.1 million households connectable to FTTH worldwide (up 9.3% year on year) and the FTTH customer base was 13.5 million (up +14.3% year on year).
Operating income rose 14.8% (+661 million euros) to 5,116 million euros, due to the increase in EBITDAaL and the decrease in expenses related to the Part-Time for Seniors plans and restructuring costs, offset by a decrease in gains on the disposal of securities and activities linked to the sale of OCS and Orange Studio and the Orange Bank loan portfolio.
Consolidated net income was stable at 2,902 million euros (+0.3% or +10 million euros[4]). Spanish activities contributed -48 million euros to net income[5].
Net income attributable to owners of the parent company came to 2,350 million euros. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at 0.82 euros.
At 31 December 2024, organic cash flow from telecom activities excluding Spain was 3,372 million euros, in line with the target of at least 3.3 billion euros by the end of 2024. This 5.9% improvement in cash generation year on year (+189 million euros) is mainly due to improvement in the “EBITDAaL – eCAPEX” indicator for telecom activities (+87 million euros on a historical basis) and lower tax expense payments (+77 million euros).
Free cash flow all-in[6] excluding Spain totaled 2,992 million euros, up 19.1% year on year, thanks to growth in organic cash flow and the phasing of telecom license payments.
Net financial debt, which stood at 22,482 million euros at 31 December 2024, was down by 4,520 million euros compared to 31 December 2023, thanks to the 4,461 million euros in income from the creation of the MASORANGE joint venture in Spain. The ratio of “net financial debt to EBITDAaL from telecom activities” fell to 1.84x at 31 December 2024, in line with the target of a ratio of around 2x in the medium term. The liquidity position of the telecom activities was solid at 17.4 billion euros and the average cost of gross debt was 3.03%.
Return on capital employed[7] (ROCE) was 6.9%, an improvement of 100 basis points in two years.
Financial objectives
The Group achieved all its objectives for 2024 and increased its 2025 financial objectives, which were presented at the Capital Market Day on 16 February 2023.
In 2025, Orange aims to achieve the following financial objectives:
- EBITDAaL growth of around 3%
- Discipline on eCAPEX in line with the Capital Market Day
- Organic cash flow from telecom activities of at least 3.6 billion euros, an increase compared to the Capital Market Day target of 3.5[8] billion euros
- Net debt/EBITDAaL ratio from telecom activities unchanged at around 2x in the medium term
Payment of a dividend of 0.75 euros per share in respect of the 2024 fiscal year will be proposed to the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting in 2025. For fiscal year 2025, Orange has set a dividend floor of 0.75 euros per share.
Sustainability objectives
The current scores awarded by ESG rating agencies are strong: MSCI: A; Sustainalytics: moderate risk; ISS: Prime B-; EcoVadis: Platinum.
In terms of the environment, the Group has exceeded its target of reducing its scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 30% in 2025 compared to 2015, two years ahead of schedule, with a 37.4% decrease in emissions in 2023 and a 38.6% decrease in 2024.
With an 11% reduction in emissions in 2024 on scope 3, the Group is on track to achieving the target of -14% in 2025 compared with 2018.
As for digital inclusion, the Group reached its target of 2.5 million beneficiaries of support and training to digital between 2021 and 2025, one year ahead of schedule.
With regard to diversity, the Group exceeded its target of 35% women in management networks, one year ahead of schedule, reaching 35.6%, an increase of 1.5 points.
To read the complete press release please download the attached pdf file.
_________________________________________________________
The Board of Directors of Orange SA met on 12 February 2025 and reviewed the consolidated financial results at 31 December 2024[9].
More detailed information on the Group’s financial results and performance indicators is available on the Orange website www.orange.com/en/finance/investors/consolidated-results.
[1] Unless otherwise stated, percentage changes are on a year-on-year basis, calculated against 31 December 2023 on a comparable basis.
[2] Public Switched Telephone Network
[3] On a cost base of around 12 billion euros defined at the end of 2022 and after the integration of VOO
[4] Data on a historical basis
[5] Net income from Orange Spain of +207 million euros in the 1st quarter, offset by MASORANGE’s share of net income of -255 million euros over nine months
[6] Telecom activities
[7] In 2024, the ROCE of telecom activities adjusted for the loss of exclusive control of Orange Spain and its subsidiaries on 26 March 2024 (calculated with adjusted NOA (i) excluding the NOA of Orange Spain and its subsidiaries at 31 December 2023 and (ii) including 50% of the NOA of MASORANGE at 31 December 2024).
[8] Guidance Capital Market Day excluding Spain
[9] The audit procedures are being finalized and the audit report will be issued in March
