Continued improvement in EBITDA and mobile indicators

In the second quarter, revenue was at the previous year’s level. Comparable EBITDA increased by 1.4 per cent to EUR 201 million. Comparable cash flow was EUR 71 million.

During the second quarter, mobile KPIs returned to normalised levels. Prices for our new consumer mobile subscriptions in Finland exceeded the previous year’s level. Sales and marketing costs were down from the previous quarter to a normal level. At the same time, churn decreased slightly from 17.2 to 16.7 per cent, which is in line with our 10-year average Q2 churn. While we saw an improvement in mobile KPIs, telecom service revenue was still negatively impacted by last year's harsh competitive environment in mobile services. We saw solid growth of 3 per cent in fixed service revenue, partly offsetting the negative development in mobile service revenue. Improved pricing in mobile takes effect with a delay, especially supporting Q4 telecom service revenue.

We continued our cost-saving actions, securing continued improvement in EBITDA. The transformation programme is progressing according to plan and will deliver the targeted cost savings of EUR 40 million during the year. We continue to improve efficiency by leveraging AI and further simplifying operations.

The fibre subscription base continued to grow. In July, we acquired Napapiirin Kuituverkot Oy in the Lapland area, and Finland’s largest rental housing company, Lumo Plc, with a portfolio of 44,000 apartments, chose Elisa as its service provider. As part of our network and service upgrades, we completed the ramp-down of the fixed-line network that served Finns for over 140 years.

Elisa is in a strong position as a trusted connectivity service provider in the growing data centre market in Finland, where the first deals with large-scale data centre operators have been signed. This gives Elisa attractive business opportunities going forward.

Elisa’s cooperation on drone detection with the Finnish Border Guard and Sensofusion, as well as successful testing of submarine cable security with the Finnish Border Guard and the Finnish Navy, demonstrate our ability to develop innovative solutions to strengthen Finland's comprehensive security.

In international software services, Q2 revenue and profitability were below our expectations as global, geopolitically driven uncertainties resulted in some license agreements being postponed. Order backlog, however, developed positively. Spain’s leading mobile operator MasOrange selected Elisa Industriq’s solution across its newly combined mobile network.

In July, we were pleased to reach an agreement with MTV, a Finnish commercial TV company. Under the new agreement, we will deepen collaboration and together further develop our services. We would like to thank our customers for their patience during a regrettable interruption of MTV’s content during the prolonged negotiations.

We are proud to be one of the world’s most sustainable companies. For the third consecutive year, TIME Magazine and Statista ranked Elisa in the top 100 in their global analysis, demonstrating our commitment to long-term and systematic sustainability work.

We continue to focus on implementing our faster profitable growth strategy, creating customer value by being a frontrunner in technology, and continuously improving our competitiveness, productivity and quality.

Topi Manner

CEO