The Tunisian Company of Telecommunications Companies (SOTETEL) has published its activity indicators in the 1st quarter of 2020.
These indicators post a 47% drop in the company’s turnover to 6.2 million dinars, against 11.7 million a year earlier.
This fall is explained by a slowdown in local and export activity for several reasons such as supply difficulties, particularly for imported supplies for projects (fibre optic cables and connection accessories), the slowdown in the rate of orders and the postponement of certain operations by customers, the virtual shutdown of activities of partners and suppliers and the constraints on inter-region travel of production teams.
Export sales were down 45.7% compared to the first quarter of 2019, impacted by a slowdown in the activity of SOTETEL’s branch in Malta due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As for local turnover, it fell by 47.3% to 5.8 million dinars, compared to 11.1 million dinars a year earlier.
Operating expenses decreased to 7.8 million dinars, down 32% compared to the end of March 2019, including consumed purchases of 3.2 million dinars (-55.7%), thus improving the gross margin from 39.3% to 49.7%.
Indeed, EBITDA for the period is negative by -1.5 million dinars, down compared to Q1 2019, mainly explained by the sharp decline in revenues.
