VEON swings to IFRS net income of $195 mln in Jul–Sep

MOSCOW, Oct 28 (PRIME) -- Amsterdam-based VEON, the sole owner of Russian mobile operator VimpelCom, posted a net income of U.S. $195 million in July–September against a net loss of $645 million in the same period of 2020, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the company said on Thursday in a statement.

Total revenue increased by 10.2% on the year to $2.005 billion. Mobile and fixed service revenue grew by 8.4% to $1.825 billion, of which mobile data revenue advanced by 18.1% to $685 million.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 8.6% to $889 million. The EBITDA margin edged down 0.6 percentage points to 44.4%.

Operational capital expenditures increased by 16% to $381 million.

The net debt, excluding banking operations in Pakistan, widened by 7.2% to $8.154 billion.

The total number of mobile customers rose by 5.5% to 202.9 million.

“Reflecting the further progress in financial performance, we have increased group guidance for 2021 in relation to local currency performance for EBITDA,” the company said.

“We now forecast minimum growth in local currency EBITDA of 8% and high single-digit growth in local currency terms in revenue for the full financial year, versus our previous local currency guidance of high single-digit growth for revenue and mid to high single-digit growth for EBITDA. Our capex guidance remains unchanged, with capex intensity of 22–24%.”

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