Síminn hf. - Continued revenue growth in core services - Seite 2

Overall, EBITDA is up slightly in the quarter, as costs grew almost as fast as revenues. Wages rose rapidly in line with wage trends in the country, and many supplier contracts have a direct or indirect connection to general price trends.

Due to recent investment efforts in TV content and technology, which has a short amortization period but will in various ways strengthen the business in the long term, there are rapid depreciations this year. The long-term development of 5G systems continues in cooperation with Míla, and the PSTN system will be discontinued at the end of the year, which will save costs against the decreasing income from fixed voice services.

As previously announced, investments in TV content will be reduced for the next years. The volume could shrink even faster in the last months of the year than expected, as there is a shortage of TV content from USA due to strikes by actors and screenwriters. On the other hand, Icelandic content will be strong this winter, such as Icelandic drama series and shows about the band IceGuys. Interesting sports rights will be auctioned in the autumn, but there is a new uncertainty about the value of such rights if the Competition Authority's new policy regarding their legal treatment is allowed to stand. Under all circumstances, Síminn has plans to act quickly to offer quality content to demanding television viewers in Iceland.

There are several exciting changes ahead. In FinTech, we continue to expand our range of services with Icelandair travel points and the sale of flexible travel insurance from VÍS. We recently started a collaborative project with the Handball Association of Iceland (HSÍ) on the innovative distribution of handball games on TV available to viewers all over the country. More national sports will hopefully follow this interesting innovation. We have recently made the biggest changes to our product mix in eight years and further innovations are on the way. We have also brought our balance sheet closer to the company's strategy for capital structure, among other things by issuing corporate notes, bonds and purchasing own shares. The year of change 2023 will continue to be eventful at Síminn."