TIGO'S PARENT COMPANY MILLICOM MAKING INTERNET MORE ACCESSIBLE TO USERS ACROSS THE WORLD

 Tigo’s parent company Millicom making Internet more accessible to users across the world

During its Q1 2015 Results, released in April 2015, Millicom says it saw a 22 percent increase in its revenue which stood at $1.71 billion, and 1.14 million mobile net adds, mostly driven by Tanzania, Colombia, Chad and Honduras.

Millicom which is the parent company to Tigo Tanzania, announced that its overall data penetration increased to 27.6percent of its mobile customer base, an increase of 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous quarter and 6.7 percentage points year-on-year.

The growth is pegged on affordable smartphones, targeted data products and packages like Tigo Music in in Tanzania, Ghana and in Latin America as well Internet.org in Colombia, Guatemala, Tanzania and Paraguay.

Africa Q1 revenue increased by 16percent in local currencies to $248 million with unfavourable currency movements offsetting most of this growth. Mobile service revenue was up 13percent at $218 million with voice and SMS growing by 10percent and data by 68percent. MFS revenue at $21 million was up 46percent with all countries but Chad experiencing healthy momentum.

“Millicom’s customer base in Africa grew in Q1 with more than 737,000 net customers, particularly in Tanzania (+508,000) and Chad (+280,000) while DRC declined as we focused our commercial efforts on ARPU growth rather than customer intake,” said Mauricio Ramos, CEO, Millicom, who is on his second month at the helm of company.

“As my first set of results since joining Millicom at the start of the month, I am pleased to present a strong performance. Underlying organic revenue growth was up 9.7percent, demonstrating improvements across both our Latin American and African markets and a continuation of the momentum we saw last year,” added Mauricio Ramos Millicom’s CEO.

The data penetration rate has increased by 5.3 points over the last 12 months to 20.8percent. EBITDA at $57 million increased by 8percent year-on-year despite adverse currency movements (up 24percent in local currency). This was a 1.5 percentage point improvement of the margin at 22.9percent as we continue our cost optimization process.

Millicom announced a revenue growth of 16percent up from 13percent in the last quarter, with double digit organic revenue growth in all markets except Chad. EBITDA of $57 million with a margin improvement.

The multinational company pegs its growth to the rapid adoption of smartphones which are accelerated its mobile and data revenues. The firm saw an increasing mobile data penetration which now stands at 27.6percent (up 7percent in one year) representing nearly 16 million customers and a further 110,000 customers became users of Tigo’s mobile financial services in the first quarter with customers transacting $2.6 billion – an 33percent increase since the same period last year.

The firm says it’s mobile service revenue grew by 3.6percent in local currency with the mobile customer base increasing by 11percent (1.14 million net adds in Q1). The growth largely came from Tanzania, Chad, Colombia and Honduras. The firm says during Q1 it sold over 1.3 million smartphones and added 594,000 new mobile data users, with 338,000 net additions in Africa and 233,000 from Central America.

The Q1 2015 Results, also state that momentum in voice has increased in Africa by 11percent when compared to Q1 last year.

For Tanzania, strong customer growth in mobile (+508,000) led to revenue growth of 18percent to $92 million (8percent on a reported basis). Voice and SMS revenue were up 9percent but the biggest growth drivers were mobile data (+61percent) and MFS (+49percent). Mobile ARPU declined due to the dilution from new customers. The EBITDA margin in Q1 reached 36percent, up 5 percentage points compared to Q1 14.

The firm’s Mobile Financial Services (MFS) added 110,000 new users in Q1 and the customer base reached 9.6 million, up 31percent in one year with DRC, Honduras, Senegal and Guatemala. Year-on-year, Millicom added almost 1.3 million new users in Africa after Tigo Cash , reflecting the national interoperability announced in Tanzania and the new savings product recently launched in Rwanda. Overall MFS revenue was up 43percent with an average ARPU at $1.06, up 1percent in local currency.

During its Q1 2015 Results, released in April 2015, Millicom says it saw a 22 percent increase in its revenue which stood at $1.71 billion, and 1.14 million mobile net adds, mostly driven by Tanzania, Colombia, Chad and Honduras.

The firm said in Africa, it’s focused on growing both volume and value and DRC and Senegal returned to growth with Tanzania’s performance also accelerating which together delivered a total organic revenue growth for the region of 16percent.

“LTE arrived in Tanzania for the first time in April as we become the largest and fastest 4G network in this market. Rwanda launched the country’s first mobile-based free of charge savings product, promoting financial inclusion,” said Ramos.

To further align and make its regional hubs more efficient, Millicom has restructured its operating model to create two regions; Millicom Latam and Millicom Africa to enable it to continue to invest long term in these markets whilst managing costs. Millicom’s corporate costs reduced by 5percent this quarter and the firm aims to bring them down one by one.

#Ends