Interim Report January-September 2008

Net sales in Q3 2008 amounted to SEK 9,891 (9,509) million, an increase of 4 percent.

 

EBITDA in Q3 2008 increased by 28 percent to SEK 2,248 (1,750) million.

 

EBIT in Q3 2008 increased by 62 percent to SEK 1,394 (863) million excluding one-off items of SEK -950 (-1,319) million mainly related to impairment losses. Including one-off items EBIT amounted to SEK 444 (-456) million.

 

Net profit/loss in Q3 2008 amounted to SEK 160 (-188) million.

 

Earnings per share in Q3 2008, after dilution, amounted to SEK 0.32 (-0.37).

 

Net sales for 9M 2008 amounted to SEK 29,192 (30,457) million, an decrease of 4 percent.

 

Net profit/loss for 9M 2008 amounted to SEK 1,022 (-243) million.

 

Earnings per share for 9M 2008 amounted to SEK 2,24 (-0.32).

 

Tele2's net debt at September 30, 2008 amounted to SEK 5,224 (11,167) million, a decrease of 53 percent.

 

Harri Koponen, President and CEO of Tele2 AB comments:

 

"The last months, I have been working closely with my management team on how to successfully move forward. Tele2's longer term strategy will remain the same, but we will speed up the execution.

 

Tele2 is now about to exit the phase of realignment, and to enter a new phase of transformation. This implies that our product portfolio will transform to fit the future demands of our customers. People will go for mobility everywhere - and they want it to be fast and immediate.

 

Customers only pay for value. By investing more in coverage, capacity and quality, we will offer our customers great products, yet still at the best price. Mobile services first, and if it makes commercial sense, complement them by fixed broadband and telephony.

 

Tele2 has a strong financial position, and we are looking to invest in our existing core businesses. Going forward, we will focus even more on growth in mobile, mobile internet and corporate services. We should not forget our roots, where Tele2 has been successful as a challenger in mobile and green field operations.

 

The Mobile operations of Tele2 continue to perform strongly in a highly competitive market. The core markets of Russia, Sweden, Croatia and the Baltic all showed solid customer intake. Tele2 Russia continued to maintain its EBITDA margin of 36 percent, despite an initiated roll-out in 18 new regions including Krasnodar. The Baltic region was negatively affected by the poor economic environment. However, the operations managed to maintain an EBITDA margin at 33 percent. The Croatian operation made further inroad in the consumer segment adding 74,000 new mobile users. The Swedish mobile operations had a robust quarter, adding 127,000 new customers in Q3 2008.

 

The Fixed Broadband operations showed promising improvement in Q3 2008 and our goal to focus less on market share and more on operational result has paid off. The quarter, once again, showed a healthy pick-up in operational performance and showed for the first time a positive EBITDA result at group level. However, we still have a long way to go before fixed broadband services meet our set hurdles. Revenue continued to develop according to plan and grew by 10 percent compared to the same period last year.

 

Fixed Telephony operations continued to deliver strong results and profitability. The EBITDA margin was 28 percent and capital expenditures were kept to a minimum in the quarter. Going forward, we will continue to do more of the same - maximize cashflow of a mature asset."

 

 

Harri Koponen

President and CEO

Telephone: +46 (0)8 5626 4000

 

Lars Nilsson

CFO

Telephone: +46 (0)8 5626 4000

 

Lars Torstensson

Investor Relations

Telephone: +46 (0)8 5620 0042

 

Tele2 will present the results at a meeting at Hitechbuilding 17th floor, Sveavägen 9, Stockholm, at 10:00 am CET (09:00 am UK time/04:00 am NY time) on Wednesday, October 22, 2008. The meeting will be held in English and webcasted on Tele2's website, www.tele2.com, with the possibility to enter questions online.

 

There will also be the possibility to listen to the meeting live over the phone and attend the Q&A session via a conference call. Please note that there might be a time lag of up to 30 seconds between the Internet broadcast and the conference call if you are simultaneously watching and calling in to the press conference.

 

Dial-in information:

To ensure that you are connected to the conference call, please dial in a few minutes before the start of the press conference to register your attendance.

 

Dial-in number:

Sweden: +46 (0)8 505 598 53

UK: +44 (0)20 3043 2436

US: +1 866 458 4087

 

There is also a possibility to listen to the conference call afterwards:

Replay number until November 5, 2008: +46 (0)8 506 269 49

Access code: 224 742#