Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, increased its revenue by 49.5% in January-March 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, to UAH 10.72 billion, doubling its investments to UAH 2.42 billion.
According to the financial statements published by the parent company VEON, the operator’s revenue in the first quarter increased by 36.9% in dollar terms, to $257 million.
Kyivstar’s revenue for the first quarter of 2025 grew by 49.5% thanks to an increase in ARPU (average revenue per user), which rose by 53.9% to UAH 140.6.
“These impressive results were achieved thanks to price adjustments, the stability of the 4G base, and the growing adoption of Kyivstar’s digital services, which in turn led to an increase in mobile internet consumption.
The dynamic revenue growth reflects the effective recovery from last year’s cyberattack,” VEON said in a statement.
The bulk of Kyivstar’s revenue in the reporting period came from telecom services, which grew by 47.8% to UAH 10.39 billion. However, revenue from digital services increased 2.4 times to UAH 329 million.
EBITDA increased by 64.2% to UAH 5.95 billion, and EBITDA margin increased by 5 percentage points (pp) to 55.6%. In dollar terms, EBITDA grew by 50.6% to $143 million. EBIT increased by 99% to UAH 4.18 billion, and EBIT margin by 9.8 p.p. to 39.1%.
Kyivstar’s subscriber base decreased by 4.9% to 22 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2025. The 4G subscriber base also decreased by 4.3% to 14.3 million.
“The decrease in the number of 4G users is mainly due to the overall decline in mobile subscribers. This was more than offset by a 21.2% increase in data consumption per user and an increase in the number of roaming subscribers,” VEON said in a statement.
Kyivstar recorded a 21.2% increase in data usage (the amount of gigabytes consumed by users) in January-March, to 11.4 GB. The digital MAU (Monthly Active Users) indicator grew by 32.9% to 10.3 million.
During the same period, the revenue of the Helsi digital platform grew by 41% compared to the same period last year. At the end of the first quarter, the platform had 1.8 million app users, which is 30% more than in the first quarter of last year. The number of medical professionals on the platform also increased by 3% compared to the same period last year. As of the end of March, the number of active doctors on the platform reached 39,000.
Kyivstar TV showed impressive revenue growth of 177%, thanks to a 34.9% increase in subscribers compared to the same period last year. The growth was driven by attractive content offerings, including the exclusive launch of the Setanta Premium sports channel and an updated sports section in the app, VEON said. Ukrainian-language content now accounts for 81% of the platform’s catalog. In addition, the Kyivstar TV app has expanded its reach with the launch on Xbox devices.
Kyivstar’s capital investments in January-March increased by 126% to UAH 2.42 billion and were mainly directed towards strengthening the network’s energy resilience and expanding 4G coverage.
