Orange Revenue Rises, Boosted By Africa and Middle East

By Najat Kantouar

Orange delivered higher revenue for the first quarter, boosted by strong revenue growth in its Africa and Middle East division, and backed its full-year guidance.

The French telecommunications company said Wednesday that revenue for the quarter rose to 9.85 billion euros ($10.54 billion) from EUR9.65 billion for the same period a year earlier, missing a forecast of EUR10.79 billion based on two estimates taken from FactSet.

Revenue at its Africa and the Middle East division grew 11%, led by a robust performance in voice and double-digit increases in mobile data, fixed broadband, Orange Money and in B2B, despite the devaluation of the Egyptian pound, the company said.

In Europe, revenue declined 2% due to a reduction in low-margin activities, offset partially by the continued growth of retail services excluding IT and integration services.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and the cost of leased assets, or Ebitdaal--the company's preferred metric--rose to EUR2.41 billion from EUR2.35 billion. An estimate taken from FactSet had Ebitdaal at EUR2.69 billion.

Orange backed its full-year guidance for low single-digit growth in Ebitda after leases and organic cash flow from telecom activities of at least EUR3.3 billion.

Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 24, 2024 01:48 ET (05:48 GMT)

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