Net revenue of JSC Kyivstar in 2018 totaled UAH 18.719 billion, which is 13.2% more than in 2017. According to a report of the VEON parent company, revenue of the operator from providing mobile communications services grew by 13.6%, to UAH 17.412 billion, and from the provision of fixed-line communication services – by 6.5%, to UAH 1.206 billion. In addition, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) last year rose by 14.2%, to UAH 10.529 billion, and EBITDA margin – by 0.5 percentage points (p.p.), to 56.2%.
Kyivstar’s capital expenditure in 2018 (not including the cost of licenses) increased 18.4%, to UAH 3.1 billion. The number of mobile operator’s subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2018 decreased 0.5% compared with the fourth quarter of 2017, to 26.4 million, while the number of fixed-line subscribers increased 11%, to 0.9 million.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, the operator’s income increased 16.6%, to UAH 5.009 billion. Of these, UAH 4.671 billion was revenue from mobile services (a rise of 17.2%), and UAH 311 million – income from fixed-line services (a rise of 9.1%). EBITDA over this period increased 12%, to UAH 2.793 billion, EBITDA margin decreased 2.3 p.p., to 55.8%. Capital investment in the fourth quarter of 2018 amounted to UAH 749 million, which is 40.4% more than in the same period of 2017. According to the operator, mainly the funds were sent to the development of the 4G network, improving the quality of services.
In the last quarter of last year, the ARPU (average income per subscriber) grew by 18.2%, to UAH 58, while MoU (minutes per user) decreased 1%, to 584 minutes.
According to the Kyivstar’s press release, in the fourth quarter of 2018 the number of mobile Internet users increased 18.2% compared with the same period in 2017, to 14.8 million, the consumption of data traffic increased by 152.4%, to 2.753 GB per subscriber. “The 2.5-fold increase in the consumption of data traffic, the increase in the number of mobile Internet users influenced the ARPU indicator: in the fourth quarter, this figure increased 18.2%, to UAH 58,” the company said.
In addition, Kyivstar also reminded that in recent years, the need for subscribers to use several SIM cards at the same time has been decreasing in the mobile market of Ukraine. Last year, the operator transferred taxes and other payments totaling UAH 10.5 billion to the national budget, including more than UAH 4 billion for licenses to develop new communication technologies in the country.
Kyivstar is a Ukrainian mobile communications operator. VEON international group (earlier VimpelCom) is the shareholder in Kyivstar. The group’s shares are listed on NASDAQ (New York).
