Continued growth at Magyar Telekom

Group revenue increased by 13.8% year-on-year in Q3 2024, reflecting continued growth in service revenue driven by customer base expansion and ARPU increases as well as impacts from the inflation-based fee adjustment at the Hungarian operation. Higher equipment sales and SI/IT revenue also contributed to the quarterly increase, Magyar Telekom reported on the website of the Budapest Stock Exchange.

The main points of the qurterly report include:
▪ Gross profit improved in line with revenue trends, growing 15.6% year-on-year in Q3 2024.
▪ EBITDA AL increased by 21.3% year-on-year in Q3 2024, thanks to the improvement in gross profit performance that could more than compensate for the increases in employee related expenses.
▪ Net income in Q3 2024 amounted to HUF 44.5 billion, against HUF 22.9 billion in Q3 2023, whereas adjusted net income rose from HUF 30.0 billion in Q3 2023 to HUF 46.0 billion in Q3 2024 with underlying growth primarily led by higher EBITDA contribution.
▪ Capex after lease excluding spectrum licenses amounted to HUF 69.8 billion in the first nine months of 2024, representing a 4.2% reduction year-on-year, as lower annual CPE procurements in Hungary was coupled with lower network investments and seasonally lower TV content capitalization costs in North Macedonia.
▪ Free cash flow, excluding spectrum license fees, amounted to HUF 108.5 billion in the first nine months of 2024 against HUF 48.6 billion in the first nine months of 2023. Year-on-year growth was attributable to the improved profitability and lower capex outpayments, partially mitigated by higher working capital needs related to different vendor outpayment dynamics.

Magyar Telekom CEO Tibor Rékasi commented as saying that the group's "impressive performance during 2024 continued through the third quarter, with our successful strategy, our customer-centric approach, and our ability to provide a gigabit experience, producing another strong set of operational and financial results. I am pleased to report that in the third quarter Magyar Telekom's revenue increased by 13.8% year-on-year, while EBITDA AL increased by 21.3%. We reached 94% readiness in the radio network modernization of our mobile network, and have now connected more than 1 million customers to our gigabit capable optical network.
Alongside our network and technology focus, we have made further progress with our customer-centric approach. I am happy to report that one million customers are now benefiting from our Magenta Moments discount program, and in September we further improved both our fixed and mobile portfolios which now include the possibility of streaming add-ons. We have also just announced a major milestone in our domestic TV service as following the phasing out of satellite TV services from 2025, only interactive TV services will be available in our portfolio. Looking ahead, we can confirm financial guidance for full year 2024 across all metrics.”