In the first half of this year, the telecommunications company O2 increased its net profit by 2.8 percent to 2.675 billion crowns. Nevertheless, the coronavirus crisis had a negative effect on the results, as yields stagnated in the second quarter. During the pandemic, revenues from roaming and telephone sales fell in particular, while their outages were offset by higher consumption of mobile and Internet data. The company’s consolidated operating revenues increased to 19.326 billion crowns, which is 1.8 percent more year-on-year, the operator said.
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The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on roaming and phone sales revenues in the second quarter, which meant a decline in revenue in the mobile segment. In Slovakia, total operating revenues in the first half of the year fell by 3.7 percent to 3.617 billion crowns. As in the Czech Republic, this decline was mainly due to lower revenues from roaming and telephone sales during the corona crisis.
“In the first half of the year, we did not meet our internal expectations due to the coronavirus pandemic. The mobile part of our business was particularly affected, with a year-on-year decline in revenue. new financing of the company, which will ensure our financial stability in the coming years, “added CFO Tomáš Kouřil.
In connection with the restriction of population movements due to the declaration of a state of emergency, the activity of trade channels slowed down significantly, which led to a slowdown in the growth of the number of customers. These, together with the loss of roaming revenues, were the main reasons why O2 achieved only modest growth in key indicators, according to the company’s management.
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According to J&T Bank analyst Milan Vaníček, the half-year results of O2 are not a surprise. The decline in hardware sales was replaced by revenues from growing consumption, especially of data services. “From our point of view, the company managed to record good numbers, which confirms our view that O2 CR went through a difficult period very well,” said Vaníček. At the same time, however, he does not expect the company to use the profit immediately. “Investors are waiting to clarify the situation around the upcoming auction of new frequencies, which may significantly change the market environment in the Czech Republic,” he added.
The number of mobile registered customers of the company in the Czech Republic increased to 5.91 million at the end of June, which is 43 thousand more than at the beginning of the year.
“Although it is not clear how quickly the economy will return to normal, we continue to innovate and are the first operator in two cities to launch commercial operation of the fastest 5G network,” said CEO Jindřich Fremuth. The majority owner of O2 is the PPF investment group Petr Kellner.
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