“Ukrtelecom, Ukraine’s largest fixed-line operator, posted an EBITDA profit of more than UAH 700 million in January-June 2023, while its EBITDA margin rose to 27.8%, the company said on Friday.
“Even in the difficult conditions of operating during a full-scale war, Ukrtelecom demonstrates a stable high level of operational efficiency… Based on its results in the first half of the year, Ukrtelecom generated total revenue of more than UAH 2.5 billion,” the telecom operator said in a press release.
A full quarterly report is not yet available, but for the first half of 2022 Ukrtelecom reported an EBITDA margin of 24.3%, which, given the reported total revenue of UAH 2.9 billion, allows the company to estimate EBITDA for that period at UAH 705 million and talk about maintaining this figure in the first half of 2023, despite a decline in total revenue by about 14%.
In the first half of pre-war 2021, the company generated UAH 3.4 billion in total revenue (up 10%), its EBITDA amounted to UAH 1.1 billion (+29%), and its EBITDA margin was 31.3% (+4.5 percentage points).
The press release notes that Ukrtelecom continues to operate, providing access to Internet services at 88% of the number of settlements covered by the operator’s network prior to the full-scale Russian invasion. At the same time, the number of optical Internet subscribers increased by 10% year-on-year to 320,000.
“In the conditions of martial law, the company continues to meet the demand for optical internet connection, accordingly the subscriber base of users connected via optics is increasing,” it said.
In 2023, Ukrtelecom has already built 2.023 thousand km of fiber-optic lines. 80 medical and 82 educational institutions and almost 20 business objects are connected to high-speed optical Internet. In general, as of the beginning of July, more than 1.7 thousand educational and 1.28 thousand medical institutions, as well as 550 territorial communities have fiber optics from Ukrtelecom.
“Despite the difficult economic conditions, Ukrtelecom continues to effectively dispose of the property that is released due to the modernization of technological infrastructure,” the company stressed.
Revenues for the first half of the year from commercial lease of property amounted to UAH 230 million, the statement said.
According to preliminary data, the direct losses of the company from the buildings destroyed in the occupation troops of the Russian Federation, lost equipment, telecom networks and other assets in the temporarily occupied territories amount to about 700 million UAH, and in general, the total devastating consequences of Russian aggression for “Ukrtelecom” are estimated at 2.8 billion UAH, which is mainly due to the economic depreciation of operating assets.
“During the full-scale war, the company lost a number of real estate in temporarily occupied settlements, quite a few buildings are damaged and destroyed by the enemy,” Ukrtelecom pointed out.
The company also reports on reorganization, within the framework of which, in order to increase the efficiency of telecom business, generation of new opportunities for its development, as well as consolidation of responsibility for telecom revenues, a commercial directorate was created, which united the directions of development of corporate and mass segments and inter-operator telecom business.
“The company is implementing new important projects and decisions regarding business improvement and development… The reorganization will unify and increase the efficiency of business processes, introduce new interesting products, as well as methods of sales organization and customer service,” the release said.
It is also said that Ukrtelecom fulfills its obligations to the state, having paid over UAH 750 mln of taxes to budgets of all levels in January-June 2023.
In addition, the company implemented another project on large-scale assistance to the AFU – more than 20 units of the Defense Forces were provided with almost 2.5 thousand special hardware and software. During the full-scale war, the company sent dozens of UAVs, including Valkyrie and Leleka unmanned aerial systems, to the defenders as part of the Steel Front initiative of businessman Rinat Akhmetov. About 65 million hryvnias of financial aid has already been directed to the needs of the defenders, more than 230 cars from the corporate fleet have been handed over.
More than 370 employees of Ukrtelecom are defending the Ukrainian soil in the ranks of the AFU.
