VEON’s IFRS revenue shrinks by 11.3% to $1.998 bln in Q4 2020

MOSCOW, Feb 18 (PRIME) -- Total revenue of Amsterdam-based holding VEON, the sole owner of Russian mobile operator VimpelCom, decreased by 11.3% on the year to U.S. $1.998 billion in October–December 2020, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), VEON said on Thursday in a statement.

The company also announced its 2021 financial guidance anticipating low to mid-single-digit local currency year-over-year growth in both revenue and EBITDA, capital expenditures intensity of 22–23% and leverage of around 2.4x.

Mobile and fixed service revenue fell by 11.4% to $1.842 billion, and mobile data revenue rose by 1.5% to $660 million.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) plunged by 11.6% to $826 million. The EBITDA margin edged down by 0.1 percentage points to 41.4%. The profit for the period decreased by 27.6% to $35 million.

In the whole 2020 year, total revenue fell 10% to $7.980 billion. Mobile and fixed service revenue fell 9.3% to $7.471 billion, and mobile data revenue increased 6.3% to $2.588 billion.

EBITDA decreased by 18.1% to $3.453 billion, and the EBITDA margin lost 4.3 percentage points to 43.3%. VEON reported a loss of $315 million instead of a profit of $683 million in 2019.

VEON’s total number of subscribers fell by 1.6% to 209 million as of the end of 2020.

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