The good progress of the Orange business in the last months of 2022 was not intense enough to overcome the poor evolution of the first months and the balance of 2022 finally ended in a turnover of 4,647 million euros, 1.5% per below the previous year.
Income from services fell by 1.9% and stood at 3,136 million; wholesale sales fell 2.4%, to 878 million, and equipment sales rose 1.7%, reaching 632 million euros.
The positive trend of the Orange Spain business is confirmed in the fourth quarter, in which it registered growth in total revenue of 1,204 million euros, 2.3% more than in the same period of the previous year.
In this way, and after adding two consecutive quarters of positive growth (0.2% in the third quarter of 2021 and 2.3% in the fourth quarter of the year), the company certifies the sustained improvement in its financial results, and address 2023 with the goal of achieving “strong growth” in adjusted operating profit (Ebitdal)
This indicator fell by 4% in 2022 to 1,111 million euros, compared to the 12.7% that had fallen in 2021. As the company explains, "the deployment of a cost savings plan and a reformulation of the retail market ” have made it possible to stop the fall in that operating profit, which in the first half of 2022 was 6.7%, while in the second half it was barely 1.5%.
As for the number of customers, the firm ended the year with 33,000 net mobile contract registrations and 8,000 fiber optic customers, although it has lost 20,000 convergent packages.
Although those who remained in the firm, provided greater profitability, since the ARPU (indicator that calculates the monthly payment per customer) increased by 2%, without taking into account the price increase that the company will begin to apply. next March 26.
In this environment of reduced income, the investment commitment continues, although 9.1% below that made in 2021. In total during 2022, Orange's infrastructure investments in Spain amounted to 838 million euros, which means allocating the 18.6% of its income to projects such as the extension of fiber networks and 5G.
