Growth was primarily driven by Africa & Middle East, which posted its best first quarterly performance in 10 years (up 7.1%), and by Other European countries (2) (up 2.2%). The Enterprise segment returned to modest growth (+0.4%), while France was resilient (-0.2%) and Spain remained markedly negative (-7.4%).
“In spite of the effects of the health crisis which remained significant in the first quarter, the Group demonstrated its resilience, maintaining revenue growth (+0.5%) and stabilizing EBITDAal (-0.3%). Revenues in particular were sustained by the remarkable performance in Africa and the Middle East where Orange posted growth of more than 7% and passed the threshold of 130 million mobile customers.”
Stéphane Richard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Orange Group
Orange group revenues reached 10.3 billion euros in Q1 2021, up +0.5% year-on-year on a comparable basis despite the health crisis, which impacted the entire quarter, as opposed to just two weeks in Q1 2020. Growth was fueled by equipment sales, which were up +10.8%, fixed broadband services, up +5.3%, and IT and integration services, up +5.1%. In contrast, roaming revenue was down sharply (-31.1% year-on-year) as a result of ongoing travel restrictions. Africa & Middle East, where revenue increased by +7.1%, was the main driver of this growth. Poland also performed well, with growth of +4.1%.
In France our commercial performance was very solid and we set a new record for net FttH sales in a first quarter, which allowed us to reach almost 5 million fiber customers. In addition, Orange Bank now has 1.5 million customers in Europe and over 500,000 customers in Africa.
Stéphane Richard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Orange Group
Mobile financial services expanded their customer base, integrating nearly 300,000 business customers. This brought the total to 1.5 million customers in Europe and over 500,000 for Orange Bank Africa.
