ZAGREB, 10 February 2021 - In 2020, the A1 Hrvatska telecommunications company generated a revenue of €428.1 million, which is 1.1% less than in 2019, while its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) dropped by 1.2% to €143.4 million, A1 Hrvatska reported on Wednesday.
Apart from unforeseeable extraordinary circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affecting A1 results, the performance of this telecom, which is part of A1 Telekom Austria Group, was also exposed to the consequence of devastating earthquakes in Zagreb and Sisak-Moslavina County, A1 noted.
The fall in the company's EBITDA mostly resulted from a decreased revenue from visitors using roaming and the poorer value of the kuna currency as well as from an increase in risky uncollectible debts.
The last year's delay in 5G network spectrum projects prevented the implementation of significant investments that had been planned for that network. Therefore, a lower level of investments were registered in 2020 amounting to €49.6 million, A1 said.
With the good results in the mobile phone segment and demand for wireless fixed (landline) Internet connections, the company achieved a mild 1.2% increase in the market share and an increase of 5.3% in the number of mobile phone users. However, it also registered a fall in the number of fixed services (TV, Internet and telephone) of 2%.
The A1 Hrvatska management board president, Jiří Dvorjančanski, was quoted as saying that 2020 was the hardest year since the company had started doing business in Croatia, adding though that the disasters caused by the earthquakes and pandemic were an additional motivation to turn to the community and users.
