Telecoms group Veon seeks growth and diversification
Recasts with CEO comments, adds quotes in paragraphs 5 and 6
By Gianluca Lo Nostro and Olivier Sorgho
Aug 8 (Reuters) -Amsterdam-listed telecom group Veon VON.AS is looking for growth opportunities and may make select acquisitions as it seeks to further diversify beyond telecoms, its CEO told Reuters on Thursday after the company posted higher quarterly earnings.
Veon, which owns Ukraine's biggest mobile operator Kyivstar, said core profit (EBITDA) rose 13.9% on a local currency basis to $459 million in the three months through June, reflecting strong customer gains across its services.
Since Veon last year exitedRussia, which had been its main market, it has focused on expanding in other territories, including Ukraine, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Bangladesh.
The group is diversifying beyond telecoms to generate revenue from various digital services.
"Don't be surprised if you see us making very select acquisitions in adjacent markets," Chief executive Kaan Terzioglu said, adding that Veon would approach some competitors in markets where it operates and offer to share network infrastructure.
"I think there is no telecom company which should have exclusive networks from fiber to active equipment," he noted, while pointing to the recent sale of Telecom Italia's TLIT.MI fixed-line network to KKR as an example.
France's Orange in July also unveiled plans to create an infrastructure-sharing company with Vodafone in Spain.
Veon's results for the second quarter showed that in Ukraine, core profit increased by 9.8% despite higher energy costs. In Pakistan, where Veon owns the country's largest telecom provider Jazz, sales grew by 24.2%. In Kazakhstan, they rose 18.8%.
"Robust organic performance across our markets is driven by 10 million additional 4G customers, 111 million digital service users, showcasing our capability to build new businesses in financial, entertainment, healthcare, education, and enterprise services," Terzioglu said in a statement.
Veon on Thursday also confirmed its sales and core profit forecasts for the full year.
Reporting by Olivier Sorgho and Gianluca Lo Nostro in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi and David Holmes
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