Ukrainian mobile operator lifecell earned UAH 611.5 million in net profit in April-June 2023, while it ended April-June 2022 with a net loss of UAH 27.4 million.
Parent company Turkcell said in a report on its website on Thursday that lifecell’s revenue rose 36.5 percent to UAH 2 billion 903.1 million in the second quarter.
“Lifecell’s revenue grew by 36.5% year-on-year in local currency, mainly due to ARPU growth, which was supported by price adjustments and increased data consumption,” the company pointed out in a press release.
EBITDA increased by 39.3% to UAH 1 billion 715.1 million, while EBITDA margin increased by 1.2 percentage points to 59.1%. Turkcell attributed this improvement mainly to lower interconnection and electricity costs as a percentage of revenue.
At the same time, the company’s capital expenditures for April-June increased 2.2 times to UAH 1 billion 445.6 million.
According to the report, the base of active lifecell subscribers for this period amounted, as in the previous quarter, to 8.6 million against 8.4 million a year earlier, while the total number of customers increased to 11.1 million from 10.8 million in the previous quarter and 10.2 million a year earlier.
Meanwhile, ARPU (average revenue per user per month) among active users rose 36.1% year over year and 7.7% to 112.7 UAH in the quarter.
“The penetration of lifecell smartphones amounted to 84.6% as of the end of Q2. On average, about 96% of stores were operating daily as of the end of June. On average, about 7.3% of the nearly 9,000 sites were temporarily out of service on a daily basis in Q2,” the report also said.
Turkcell added that lifecell’s current cash reserves are “more than sufficient” to support its operations.
Overall in the first half of the year, lifecell’s revenue grew by 26.1% year-on-year to UAH 5 billion 590.6 million, EBITDA by 31.6% to UAH 3 billion 320.1 million and net profit by 6.2 times to UAH 1 billion 127.2 million. The company also increased capital investments by 52% to UAH 2 billion 83.6 million.
lifecell is the third largest mobile operator in Ukraine. Turkcell is the owner of 100% of lifecell’s shares.
Lifecell’s revenue in the second quarter amounted to 75.3% of Turkcell International’s revenue and 7.6% of the consolidated revenue of Turkcell as a whole.
