GDANSK (Reuters) - The Polish arm of telecoms firm Orange on Monday maintained its full-year guidance for revenue and core earnings after reporting a slightly better-than-expected 23% rise in third-quarter net profit to 237 million zlotys ($56.43 million).
Third-quarter revenue fell 3% to 3.12 billion zlotys, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation after leases (EBITDAaL) climbed 2.3% to 841 million zlotys.
The results were driven by the "resilience of core telecom services to a difficult macro environment and intense competition", Orange Polska CEO Liudmila Climoc said in a company press release.
"Customer net additions in all key services were higher than in the previous quarter, and ARPO growth was maintained at the solid level of 3-4% year-on-year," Climoc said, referring to average revenue per offer.
"Following robust growth in the first half of the year, the performance of our ICT (information and communications technology) business in the third quarter reflected a slowdown in market demand," she added.
Orange Polska also announced it had obtained a 5G C-band license.
"It is a milestone for our business, unlocking new service opportunities for our customers and significantly improving the capacity of our mobile networks," said the CEO.
"It is also essential for the overall Polish economy, as digitisation is an important contributor to growth of GDP."
The company will now focus on investing in network development to offer the service to its customers as quickly as possible, Climoc said.
($1 = 4.2001 zlotys)