Tele2 Lowers FY Sales Guidance for Kazakhstan

Tele2 has lowered the outlook for revenues from its Kazakhstan activities this year, to SEK 1.45-1.55 billion from SEK 1.70-1.80 billion previously, amid a slowdown in customer growth. The Kazakh operator added a net 309,000 new customers in the second quarter, better than Q1 but still less than half the year-earlier total. The total customer base numbered 3.162 million at the end of June. During the quarter, 811,000 customers were deemed no longer active, after the operator stopped counting customers only receiving incoming calls. 

Sales rose to SEK 333 million from SEK 228 million a year earlier, and underlying service revenue growth was 64 percent. Improving interconnection rates helped boost gross margins, and the EBITDA loss narrowed to SEK 52 million from SEK 105 million a year ago. The company targets an EBITDA loss of SEK 100-200 million for the full year. 

Capex doubled compared to Q1 to SEK 184 million, in order to meet demand for data services and enhance the fibre backbone. Tele2 Kazakhstan’s goal for 2013 is to have a geographic coverage comparable to that of its competitors. Total cash capex this year is estimated at SEK 550-650 million.