Strong third-quarter results, 2024 financial targets confirmed
- Growth in retail services in France and Europe
- Outstanding performance in Africa & Middle East
Commenting on these results, Christel Heydemann, Chief Executive Officer of the Orange group, said:
“I would like to highlight the remarkable work of our teams over this quarter, particularly during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is a source of enormous pride for all of us to have successfully connected this amazing event with more than 3 billion spectators around the world.
Our third-quarter results confirm our successful execution of the Lead the Future strategic plan. Our revenue growth of 1.6% and EBITDAaL growth of 2.7% are in line with the Group's guidance. These solid results are driven by excellent sales momentum and growth in retail services across all geographies.
In France, Orange is reaffirming and accelerating its leadership position with growing revenues, thanks to a balanced and disciplined volume/value commercial strategy. This can be seen in the 2.8%[1] growth in retail services and a marketing strategy focused on convergence which is the key to value creation.
Africa and the Middle East again delivered a very good performance with growth of 10.5%. Our innovative Max-It multi-service digital platform is attracting ever more users. Orange's activities are a genuine lever for economic development for Africa, progress from which we also benefit.
The strong third-quarter results demonstrate the soundness of our strategy, the great competence of our teams and the role we can play as our customers' trusted operator.”
Orange group revenues rose 1.6% compared with the third quarter of 2023[2] (+153 million euros) thanks to growth in retail services (+2.5% or +185 million euros) and a smaller decline in wholesale services (-3.3% or -51 million euros), mainly related to higher unbundling and civil engineering rates in France in the first quarter.
- Africa & Middle East is the main contributor to this growth, with revenues rising +10.5% (+182 million euros), driven by a robust performance in voice as well as increases from its four growth engines (+18.3% in Mobile data, +17.2% in Fixed broadband, +20.7% for Orange Money and +5.8% in B2B across all activities).
- Revenues in France increased 1.3% (+59 million euros) thanks to faster growth in retail services excluding PSTN[3] (+2.8%), and a smaller decline in wholesale services
(-1.9%). - Europe declined (-2.1% or -38 million euros) due to wholesale services (-5% or
-37 million euros) and other low-margin activities, while retail services grew 1.6% (+20 million euros). - The decrease in Orange Business revenues (-2.6% or -50 million euros) was again due to the decline in Fixed-only revenues (-7.1% or -56 million euros). Revenue growth for Orange Cyberdefense was dynamic (+9.7%), while IT and integration services remained stable (+0.5% or +4 million euros) in an IT market under pressure.
- 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 (+8.5%) including 94.8 million contracts (+11.7%). Fixed services had 38.7 million accesses worldwide (-3.0%) of which 14.0 million were very high-speed broadband accesses, an area of continued solid growth (+13.4%).
Accelerated EBITDAaL growth confirms the Group’s ability to execute its value strategy.
In line with the target of slight growth in 2024, and thanks to a solid performance in retail services, Group EBITDAaL for the third quarter increased +2.7% to 3,345 million euros (following increases of +2.6% in 2Q and +2.3% in 1Q). EBITDAaL from telecom activities grew to 3,370 million euros (+2.4%).
eCAPEX amounted to 1,359 million euros in the third quarter of 2024, down -2.5% year on year. eCAPEX for telecom activities as a percentage of revenues was 13.6%, in line with the objective of around 15% in 2024. At 30 September 2024, the number of households connectable to FTTH reached 58.7 million excluding Spain (+10.1%), and the FTTH customer base was 13.0 million (+14.2%).
Financial objectives
The Group can therefore confirm its financial targets for 2024[4]:
- Low single-digit growth in EBITDAaL
- Discipline on eCAPEX
- Organic cash flow from telecom activities of at least 3.3 billion euros
- A ratio of net debt/EBITDAaL from telecom activities unchanged at about 2x in the medium term
- On 5 December 2024, Orange will pay an interim dividend in cash of 0.30 euros per share for 2024. Payment of a dividend of 0.75 euros per share in respect of the 2024 fiscal year will be proposed to the Shareholders’ Meeting in 2025.
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The Board of Directors of Orange SA met on 23 October 2024 and reviewed the consolidated financial results at 30 September 2024.
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] Excluding Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
[2] Unless otherwise stated, percentage changes are on a year-on-year basis, calculated against the third quarter of 2023 on a comparable basis.
[3] Public Switched Telephone Network.
[4] These targets are on a comparable basis and do not take into account mergers and acquisitions not yet finalized. They exclude Spain.
