Orange said that a brutal price war may be nearing its end as the pace of falling revenues at the French telecoms group slowed while profit margins held steady, reports The Financial Times.
The country’s largest mobile operator by subscribers on Tuesday said that group revenue was €9.8bn during the first three months of this year, a 4.6 per cent fall compared with the same period of 2013 – but better than the 5.8 per cent decline for the whole of 2013.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) for the first three months fell 3.4 per cent to €3bn, 1 per cent above market consensus.
Cost-cutting helped the group maintain ebitda as a percentage of sales at the same 30.8 per cent reported during the same period a year earlier.
Gervais Pellissier, chief financial officer, called the results “satisfying” and even suggested that a two-year price war that has forced Orange and other operators to slash costs and reduce prices to consumers may be near its end.
“Prices have reached a floor in France,” he said on a conference call. “There may still be wars but not on tariffs.”
Read more of this report from The Financial Times.