O2 Czech Republic ups profit by 7.1 pct to Kc5.85bn in 2020

Prague, Jan 28 (CTK) - O2 Czech Republic mobile operator raised 2020's consolidated net profit by 7.1 percent to Kc5.85bn and revenues grew by 2.6 percent to Kc39.77bn, the firm said in a press release today.

The profit growth was thanks to lower operating and current capital expenditures.

Higher fixed line traffic and growth in the ICT segment were behind the increase in revenues, the firm said.

"For the whole of 2020, financial performance fell short of our internal expectations," said Tomas Kouril, CFO of the telecommunication company.

"To compensate for the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on our mobile revenue in particular, we had to reduce both operating and current capital expenditure," Kouril said.

"Even in this difficult situation with an uncertain outlook, we won the maximum possible new spectrum for our customers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This will help us maintain our position as a technology leader in the future," said Kouril.

The total number of mobile registered customers in the Czech Republic rose by 110,000 to 5.968 million at the end of 2020, with the number of contract customers at 3.316 million.

The number of M2M (machine-to-machine communication) SIMs stood at 746,000.

The total active customer base in Slovakia reached 2.230 million last year, rising by 80,000 year on year.

The number of services of any of the O2TV tariff reached 529,000, up by 86,000 in yr/yr terms, including customers subscribed for monthly prepaid O2TV Sport Pack online and O2TV HBO and Sport Pack tariff.

The number of broadband Internet customers served via fixed line as well as wireless technology went up by 20,000 to 855,000 at the end of 2020.

During more widespread work from home and distance learning, O2's network recorded significant traffic growth. Fixed data traffic grew by 54 percent year on year in 2020 and mobile traffic grew by 70 percent. Annual growth in data traffic in the fixed and mobile networks amounting to more 50 percent had an insignificant impact on the revenue hike.

In the Czech Republic, operating revenue increased by 2.9 percent to Kc32.25bn. In the mobile segment, revenue was flat year on year at Kc20.14bn due to the significantly weaker roaming traffic and lower handset sales. In the fixed segment, revenue grew by 7.9 percent year on year to Kc12.12bn.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic continued to be reflected in the financial results of O2 Czech Republic, the firm said.

"Although our brand shops remained open throughout the state of emergency in 2020, we recorded a lower footfall by almost a quarter," said company CEO Jindrich Fremuth.

"Customer service digitisation and intelligent cooperation among individual distribution channels has also become a key priority for us, which has contributed to a very high loyalty of our customers," Fremuth said.

"Our estimate of overall dividend (for 2020) is Kc21 per share but it is quite likely that, like last year, the management's proposal will not be presented and it will be done at the end of February and the beginning of March," J&T Banka said before the publication of the business results.

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