One of HT’s main competitors, A1, published their Q3 2020 report showing a decrease in decrease in total revenues in Q3 by 2.7%.
According to A1’s report, competition in Croatia focused on convergent offers with high data allowances and TV content. In the mobile business, demand for mobile WiFi routers continued to be strong. During the summer, all operators launched special mobile data offers through self-care apps. On 24 August 24 2020, A1 launched a new portfolio for mobile and fixed-line customers with increased Internet speeds, a new TV proposition as well as new mobile tariffs with unlimited voice, SMS, and data. The company adds that the portfolio was well received by customers.
In Q3 2020, total revenues in the Croatian segment declined by 2.7%, amounting to EUR 111.8m. Such a decrease was mainly driven by roaming losses due to less travel. It was possible to compensate some of the decline by higher equipment revenues and the strong demand for mobile WiFi routers.
The fixed-line business benefited from the price increase in September 2019. There were positive one-off effects of EUR 6.5m in Q3 2019 and of EUR 2.6m in Q3 2020, both stemming from the reimbursement of frequency fee overpayments in connection with frequency fee cuts.
The company notes that the HRK depreciated by 1.7% (period average) against the EUR in Q3 2020, which led to a negative FX impact of EUR 1.8m on total revenues and EUR 0.7m on EBITDA.
Meanwhile, when observing 9M of 2020, the Croatian segment recorded a decrease of 3.5% YoY, to EUR 323.5m. ARPU in the observed period decreased by 5.8% to 10.4.
Costs and expenses excluding these one-off effects were lower YoY, as reduced sales and marketing expenses were more than able to compensate for higher bad debts. EBITDA excluding one-off and FX effects decreased by 1.5%. Meanwhile reported EBITDA amounted to EUR 44.1m which represents a decrease of 10.6% YoY. On a 9M basis, EBITDA is down by 4.1%.
Going furher down the P&L, operating profit decreased by 13.8% to EUR 20m in Q3, while on a 9M basis that decrease was 4.8% (to EUR 36.4m). Such a results puts the EBIT margin at 11.7%, which is a slight decrease of 0.18%.
