Turkey's leading information and communication technologies company Türk Telekom carried the strong growth performance it seized in 2018 over into the first half of 2019. The company reached the best first half growth and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) values of the past 11 years, since its initial public offering in 2008.
Türk Telekom stood out in the first six months of 2019 with its high operational profitability and strongly increased its total subscriber count to 47 million with a net increase of over 1 million.
Türk Telekom generated TL 11.2 billion in revenue with a growth of 15.8% in the first six months of 2019 and achieved its highest revenue increase in the first six-month periods since the public offering in 2008. The company's EBITDA also rose by 35% in comparison to the same period of the previous year and came in at TL 5.3 billion.
Due to the record growth in revenues and EBITDA as well as the high increase in EBITDA profitability achieved in the first half of the year, Türk Telekom's net profit came in at TL 745 million. While maintaining investments towards Turkey's digital transformation with its local and national technology solutions, Türk Telekom's capital expenditure increased by 11% in the first half of 2019 in comparison to the same period of the previous year and rose to TL 1.6 billion.
In the first six months, Türk Telekom's total internet subscriber count surpassed 11.1 million and its mobile subscriber count rose to 22.4 million with an increase of 213,000 and 851,000, respectively. The percentage of LTE users among mobile subscribers rose from 41% to 50% in comparison to the same period of the previous year.
Türk Telekom CEO Paul Doany assessed the financial and operational results for 2019's second quarter and indicated that they topped off the strong momentum with the record growth they achieved in first six months of 2019.
Doany continued, "Thanks to the correct strategy, execution and efficient cost management, we generated a net profit of TL 745 million in the first six months of 2019. The financial and operational results we achieved in the first six-month period of the year prove that we have successfully executed our strategy which focuses on subscriber increase, aims for operational productivity and attaches importance to customer experience by combining it with our high energy."
Stating that the proliferation of internet use is of great importance for Turkey's digitalization and for the country to make the development leap it is aiming for, Doany added that operations in this area are ongoing.
"While our fiber household access has surpassed 19.4 million, we are not neglecting to develop the fiber infrastructure which will prepare Turkey for 5G. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) fiberization report, Turkey is ahead of the U.S. and many countries from the EU area such as Italy, the U.K. and Germany. While Germany's subscriber fiberization rate is 3% and that of the U.K. is 2%, this rate in Turkey has surpassed 20% with the leadership provided by Türk Telekom," he explained.
