Turkcell’s net income rose 2 pct to 2 billion Turkish Liras in 2018

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s largest mobile operator Turkcell increased its net income by 2 percent to 2.02 billion Turkish Liras in 2018.

The company’s profit soared 300 percent in the final quarter of last year from a year earlier to hit 864 million liras.

Revenues of Turkcell Group rose by some 21 percent on an annual basis to 5.6 billion liras in the fourth quarter while they jumped 20.8 percent in the whole of 2018 compared to the previous year to stand at 21.3 billion liras.

“Prudent financial risk management ensured a stable quarterly run-rate of net income during the year. Solid operational performance and prudent financial risk management allowed us to register a strong net income for the full year, despite a challenging macro environment,” the company said in a statement.

Turkcell’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margin was 41.3 percent last year.

Capital expenditures amounted to 1.6 billion liras in the final quarter of 2018, while for the full year the corresponding figure was 4.64 billion liras.

As of end-December, Turkcell had a total of 36.7 million subscribers: 18.8 million postpaid and 14.9 million prepaid users.

“2018 was a year where challenging macroeconomic conditions shaped global and local markets, where global trade decelerated, emerging markets saw capital outflows and the Turkish Lira depreciated against foreign currencies. And yet, we delivered a strong performance, actually exceeding our initial targets,” Kaan Terzioğlu, CEO of Turkcell, said.

In 2019, the company targets revenue growth of 16 – 18 percent, an EBITDA margin of 37 – 40 percent, he added.