Tunisia: SOTETEL’s EBITDA up 40% despite lower revenues

Penalized by a disappointing fourth quarter, the Tunisian Company of Telecommunications Enterprises, SOTETEL, ended the year 2017 with a turnover slightly lower by 1.3% to 47.44 million dinars against 48 million in 2016.
Local turnover dropped by 1.4% to 46.9 million dinars, while exports, although low, rose by 16.1% to 289 thousand dinars against 249 thousand dinars, a year ago.
As for operating expenses (excluding depreciation and provisions), they went from 43 million dinars at the end of December 2016 down to 40.4 million at the same date in 2017, thus posting a decrease of 6.1% mainly explained by the decline in consumed purchases by 9.6% and staff costs by 1.8%.
In addition, the company’s EBITDA rose by 40.8% in 2017 to 7 million dinars against 4.9 million a year earlier.
SOTETEL also announces exceptional gains in the order of 3.47 million dinars (+ 160%) mainly consisting of a capital gain on disposal of assets and a complement of the proceeds of an accounting clearance transaction.