Orange Belgium

Third quarter 2016 financial results

Solid mobile service revenues with +7.2 % restated EBITDA growth in Q3 lead Orange Belgium to upgrade its 2016 guidance

Clear focus on convergence and customer experience

Brussels, 21 October 2016 - Today, the Orange Belgium Group (Euronext Brussels: OBEL) publishes its results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2016. Following the rebranding and the national launch of the Orange Internet + TV offer in Belgium in the second quarter of 2016, Orange Belgium maintains an intense and sustained activity in the third quarter of 2016 with the launch of a new convergent and data centric mobile portfolio. In the third quarter of 2016, the Orange Belgium Group succeeded in realizing a solid restated EBITDA (+ 7.2 % year-on-year), supported by stable mobile service revenues and a constant focus on cost management, more than offsetting 13.0 million euros EU roaming impact.

• In the third quarter and first nine months of 2016 the Orange Belgium Group realized a total turnover of 311.1 and 919.8 million euros, an increase of 1.7 % and 0.8 % year-on year (+6.2 % and +2.9 % underlying growth once adjusted for the 13.0 and 19.2 million euros EU roaming impact). This performance has been fuelled by a solid growth in mobile service revenues of 5.2 % and 3.9 % year-on-year in the third quarter and first nine months of 2016 once adjusted for EU roaming, reflecting both a growing postpaid customer base (+57.3 thousand) and sustained postpaid ARPU evolution (+1.5 %) in Belgium, compared to September 2015.
   
• In combination with the positive development of the top line, a tireless focus on cost management allowed the Orange Belgium Group to absorb the fixed costs related to the cable launch and the adverse impact of EU roaming. The restated EBITDA amounted to 92.2 and 237.1 million euros in the third quarter and first nine months of 2016, equivalent to a 7.2 % and 4.0 % growth year-on-year. The Group pursued its efforts on cost transformation in the third quarter of 2016 that translated into lower commissions paid to third-party distributors, a reduction in labor costs and a further decrease in IT and network expenses. This operational performance, in addition to the mobile capex normalization, led to a net financial debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.9x from 1.7x a year ago, reflecting a strong operational cash flow in the third quarter of 2016, up 38.9 % year-on-year or 25.2 % year-on-year in the first nine months of 2016.