If the governance of Orange has suffered major turbulence in recent weeks – between the hasty departure of Stéphane Richard and the upcoming appointment of Christel Heydemann to the management of the operator – this is less the case with its finances. In the bad news department, the net profit recorded by the incumbent operator however fell by 84.6% at the end of the 2021 financial year, to 778 million euros, while the group also suffered from a product of exceptional tax of 2.2 billion euros accounted for the previous financial year.
Orange remains in line with its forecasts, however. The group’s turnover thus amounted to 42.5 billion euros in 2021, up 0.8% over one year after growth of 0.5% in the 4th quarter. As for the operator’s Ebitdaal, it stands at 12.6 billion euros, down 0.5% over the year, but “still in line with the objectives”, notes the management of Orange.
The performance of the incumbent operator continues to be driven by the dynamics of the operator in the Africa and Middle East zone, where the group’s revenues reached 6.3 billion euros in 2021, an increase of 10, 8% over the year, driven in particular by the increase in services billed to customers in the region. Orange now has a base of 44.4 million 4G customers in the Africa and Middle East zone (+34.4% over the year), while its Orange Money money transfer service has 25. 1 million active customers (+14.6% over one year), for a turnover up 4.4% over the year.
Spain, an Achilles heel for Orange
This is enough to compensate for the drop in revenue recorded by Orange on the Spanish market. In this market, Orange achieved a turnover of 4.6 billion euros in 2021, down 4.7% over the year. In difficulty in this market, where Orange is the dolphin of the incumbent operator Telefonica, the group still chaired by Stéphane Richard is pushing for market consolidation to consolidate its position and return to the green. According to the Spanish press, Orange is currently negotiating to merge its Spanish branch with its competitor MasMovil, the fourth player in the market, whose discounted offers compete with its own offers.
In France, although the operator has certainly recorded a drop in its turnover of around -1.6% over the year, to 18 billion euros, its commercial and operational performance still ensures position as the number one operator on the market. The operator recently announced that it had passed the 6 million FttH customer mark and saw its fiber customer base increase by 31.7% over one year. Finally, in the Enterprise segment, the operator recorded a 0.5% increase in turnover in 2021, to 7.7 billion euros, helped by the good performance of its mobile and integration activities.
As for its forecast, Orange expects to return to gross profit growth this year, after suffering from lower co-financing with other operators and strong competition in the Spanish market in 2021. This news year will mark a turning point for the operator, which closes the era of Stéphane Richard, who will hand over the controls of the group to Christel Heydemann on April 4. The management of the operator confirmed this Thursday morning, during a conference call, to forecast for 2022 a growth of 2.5% to 3% of its gross operating surplus.