Orange weathers pricing competition as Q2 earnings rise
Recasts lead, adds CEO, analyst comment
By Olivier Sorgho and Leo Marchandon
July 24 (Reuters) -French telecom services provider Orange ORAN.PA reported a rise in second-quarter core profit on Wednesday, boosted by strong sales in Africa and the Middle East, and price increases in Europe.
Core profit after leases, excluding the company's Spanish operations, rose 2.6% year-on-year to 3.11 billion euros ($3.37 billion), in line with a company-provided consensus that had expected 3.10 billion.
That was helped by Africa and the Middle East where sales grew 10.3%. In Europe, they declined 2.2%, but Orange still made a profit there, as it raised prices when some of its rivals have cut them.
An Orange mobile package is the most expensive in France, costing about 27 euros, while rival Free's offer costs about 11 euros, and SFR's about 14 euros, according to a report by telco analysis site Zone ADSL.
"We have no room and no environment to do a 'big bang' price increase," CEO Christel Heydemann told analysts, but added that in the second half of 2024, Orange would further benefit from existing price hikes in France.
The group has lost some broadband customers in its home market, also due to inflation.
"There was definitely a bit of competitive pressure on the low-end of the market, on the mobile," CFO Laurent Martinez told reporters.
Overall, Orange gained a net 104,000 mobile customers in France, mainly through its low-cost brand Sosh. But it lost some fixed broadband customers.
J.P. Morgan in a note said the results were robust, with sales and profits in line with expectations.
Orange also announced a non-binding agreement with Vodafone Spain to create a shared fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) company that would cover about 4 million customers.
MasOrange, its JV in Spain, would hold 50% in this project, and Vodafone up to 10%, Heydemann said, adding they would seek to bring in a third investor, likely an infrastructure fund.
The group confirmed its full-year guidance.
($1 = 0.9217 euros)
Reporting by Olivier Sorgho and Leo Marchandon; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Alex Richardson and Barbara Lewis
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
