Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas today indicated that the telecom service provider will be enhancing its Capex (capital spending) in 2014 to expand the network.
Announcing the financial result for the fourth quarter of 2013 and 2013, Telenor said its Capex to sales will be around 16 percent in 2014 against 14.1 percent in 2013 and 12.1 percent in 2012.
Some of the Capex plan of Telenor includes Thor 7 satellite for NOK 1.5 billion, continued roll out of 2.1 GHz network in Thailand, network swap in Bulgaria, redeployment of 5,000 sites in India for NOK 300 million and continued investments in 4G and fiber in Norway.
Telenor’s equipment vendors such as Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, NSN, Huawei, ZTE, Cisco, etc. will have a good time this year.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, Telenor Capex excluding licenses and spectrum was $746 million (NOK 4,577 million) against NOK 3,571 million in Q4 2012.
Telenor increased its Capex to $2.4 billion (NOK 14,659 million) in 2013 from NOK 12,299 million in the previous year.
Meanwhile, Telenor said its 2013 revenue increased to NOK 104,027 million from NOK 101,718 million and Q4 2013 revenue rose to NOK 27,611 million from NOK 25,990 million.
Telenor profit for 2013 grew to NOK 13,197 million from NOK 8,809 million, while Q4 profit dipped to NOK 2,430 million from NOK 2,508 million.
During the year, Telenor added 17 million subscribers, of which 5 million alone in the final three months. This growth was mainly driven by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. These countries still represent a significant potential for further growth.
