Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Mina, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the OTE conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the Q4 2022 financial results. All participants will be in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and 0 on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Michael Tsamaz, chairman and CEO, Mr. Babis Mazarakis, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Panayiotis Gabrielides, Chief Marketing Officer, Consumer Segment, and Mr. Evrikos Sarsentis, Head of IR and M&A. Mr. Tsamaz, you may now proceed.
Good afternoon, or good morning to everyone on the call. I'm pleased to welcome you to OTE's Q4 and full year 2022 earnings call. I'll focus my remarks on full year highlights, and Babis will talk specifically about the quarter before returning to your questions. In 2022, OTE had another robust year. We are pleased to have met all the targets we had outlined throughout the year. Thanks to this performance, we're starting the year in good shape, fit to continue growing in the future. This is particularly important as we anticipate that the months ahead might be somewhat more challenging. Economic conditions around the world are not getting any easier. The geopolitical environment remains volatile, and here in Greece, the competitive environment remains intense. We're ready for all these challenges, old and new.
I'm going to give you my take on what I view as key developments of 2022. Even if we did return to a more normal situation after two years of pandemic disruption, 2022 has not been an easy year. Our good performance is a testimony to the determination, passion and entrepreneurial spirit of everyone at OTE. I'm certain that the shareholders on this call will join me in thanking the men and women of OTE for their contribution. Going back to our full year performance for the group as a whole, as well as for our activities in Greece alone, full year sales and EBITDA were up about 4%, an appreciable performance in the current environment. Reported free cash flow reached nearly EUR 600 million, up 24% over the previous year in line with our target.
This enabled us to simultaneously pursue our ambitious investment strategy and reward our shareholders. We were convinced the superior execution across the board is perceived by a great majority of our customers as our key brand differentiator. It is the attribute we intend to continue deploying systematically throughout our networks and in our customer service touchpoints. We have made great strides in this respect in 2022. As you know, building a fixed rate fiber to the home infrastructure is the most important weapon at our disposal, and we are working on this development at steady pace. Last year, we passed an additional 350,000 homes to reach a total of almost 1 million homes. We're planning to add another 450,000 homes in the current year. Even more rewarding, fiber to the home utilization is rising as we grow our footprint.
Even though the government program subsidizing fiber take-up had expired in Q3, we recorded significant additions in Q4, illustrating the appeal of ultra-fast broadband. We anticipate that the new voucher plan later this year will once again supercharge demand. In the meantime, the reliability and convenience of a service together with targeted ad campaigns and competitive pricing should support its growth in our customer base. Fiber to the home might be the most sophisticated weapon in our arsenal, but it is by no means the only one. The total number of fiber subscriptions, including Fiber to the home and FTTC, and fiber to the curb, was not far from 1.5 million at the end of 2022, a major increase year-on-year. They represented nearly two-thirds of our broadband base.
Our offer to double speeds led to sharp growth in the number of high-speed users. First and foremost, it was a move to reward our customers and increase their loyalty over the years. Throughout 2022, we also continued enriching our TV offering. We did so with incremental content, notably the addition of Olympiacos to the roster of Super League Greece football teams, for which we enjoy exclusive broadcasting rights. We also broadened the scope of our OTT streaming services. As a result, growth in delivering in our TV subscriber base continued during the year. Priority for 2023 will be to fight piracy, which represents a significant headwind. 2022 was another banner year for our ICT and more generally, business-to-business activities.
We have positioned OTE as a key player in helping public administration and private companies get up and running in the digital world, reap the benefits of this specialization with the award of a number of major contracts. Full year revenues from system solutions were up more than 30%, and we intend to continue emphasizing this business line, which represents an important source of future growth. In Q4 alone, ICT revenue grew 46%. In mobile, investments are focused on the development of our 5G network. We exceeded 80% population coverage at the end of 2022, and are shooting for 90% for this year, a level already reached in the country's major cities. Here, too, quality and customer loyalty are determined by availability, reliability and speed, and not just price.
We are continuing to bet on the primacy of these attributes and not letting up on providing the most advanced infrastructure and best service in our market. Our market-leading service will continue to support growth. Third leg of our strategy, we continue to launch adjacent services for all customers, leveraging our strong brand recognition and distinctive customer experience. Our BOX platform, introduced in 2019, has become a key player in this category. It now provides access to more than 11,000 shops in 7 cities in Greece. Even more impressive, our new mobile wallet application, payzy by COSMOTE, launched in the Q4 , is not far from reaching the bar of 100,000 active customers, and is rapidly taking share in the market segment that remains underpopulated and underdeveloped.
We continue adding our strong foundations in both fixed and mobile, as well as to our expansion in adjacent businesses. It's for that reason that we have decided to maintain our 2023 capital investment budget at the same high level we had last year. While we anticipate to expand our fiber to the home footprint even faster this year, this is offset by lower investments in other areas, and our CapEx budgets should remain stable. Underscoring our confidence in our future performances and in the return we expect from our continued investment, we've also committed to a 2023 shareholder remuneration policy that includes an unchanged dividend payout of EUR 250 million, representing a more than 3% rise in dividend per share, as well as a share buyback program of approximately EUR 175 million.
Now I will pass the phone over to Babis to focus more specifically on the Q4 . Babis?
Thank you very much, Michael, and hello to everyone on the call. As a whole in the Q4 , we saw a continuation of existing trends, good revenue performance in mobile fueled by our superior network attracting postpaid growth, very strong ICT, and in fixed retail a further increase in our market share of fiber subscribers with many positive long-term attributes. Romania's volatile period continues, requiring a number of adjustments throughout the year following the split from the fixed side. Overall, through our Romania subsidiary reached its full year targets. Let's look at the group performance in the Q4 in more detail. Total group revenues were up by more than 1% year-on-year to EUR 885 million, a continuing positive trend as Greece more than offset the drop in revenue in Romania. Greek mobile revenues recorded another quarter of steady growth.
As we explained last year, retail fixed revenues were down for a number of reasons, ranging from the speed upgrades we have implemented to cement customer loyalty to line disconnections as users rationalize their spending. This being said, it's important to point out that we have managed to maintain our share of the fixed access market and to expand our share in fiber. The drop in revenues in Romania, despite customer growth, is mainly due to MTR cuts and a high comparison base. Group adjusted EBITDA after leases was precisely unchanged at EUR 332 million this quarter, as breakeven in Romania was offset by higher EBITDA in Greece. Total operating expenses, excluding depreciation and one-offs, were up less than 2%. Once again, we experienced material increases in costs directly linked to revenue growth, essentially equipment purchases for our fast-growing ICT activities.
The group's EBITDA margin was down 40 basis points to 37.5% in Q4, this is due to the profit performance in Romania. Let's now turn to focus on Greece for a few minutes. Retail revenues were mixed with, on the one hand, another strong quarter in mobile, and on the other, a drop in fixed of around 3.5%. Michael covered most of the broadband KPIs in his remarks, let me just say that the slowdown in broadband revenue continued in the quarter for the reason we have explained, even as we supported and even strengthened our market share. TV revenues were essentially unchanged year-on-year, as the 3% growth in subscriber base was offset by lower ARPU, partly attributable to the higher taxation introduced in July 2022.
Greek mobile service revenues grew by a solid 3% this quarter, with even higher growth in postpaid at 3.6%. The customer base also expanded in both segments on a year-on-year basis. In a less important quarter, roaming revenues were also up, bringing the annual total above pre-pandemic levels for the first time. In the full year, versus roaming was more than 20% higher compared to the peak 2019 level. All mobile usage KPIs are pointing into the right direction. Michael gave you the 5G coverage metrics. I could add that our download speeds are twice as fast as the rest of the market. We will continue to provide the best experience, top customer service, and most advanced networks as we are confident that these represent the best retention tools at our disposal.
Wholesale was down 5% on lower international traffic, which, however, has limited impact on profitability. Other revenues were up a very strong 19%, boosted once again this quarter by significant ICT revenues. Total revenues increase were up over 2%. Total operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization and one-offs increase, were up 1.5% following the 2.2% increase in top line. We were able to lower credit loss provisioning as we had been particularly cautious in the early part of the years. The drop in our indirect operating expenses reflects our good control over our cost base, including material savings in our energy costs through our contracts. Personnel costs were up nearly 4%.
Adjusting for the one-off impact related to the spin-off benefit of certain operations in the same quarter last year, personnel expenses would be down due to the benefits of the voluntary retirement plan earlier in the year. Greek adjusted EBITDA after leases totaled EUR 332 million, up materially by more than 3% in the Q4 . In Romania, total revenues were down nearly 12%, mainly due to the heavy toll from termination rate cuts, given the mobile-only nature of the business. The top line in Q4 last year included the contribution of our MVNO revenues, which was discontinued in Q4 of 2022. TKRM posted another material increase in its total number of subscribers, including a 7% rise in postpaid customers.
Total operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization in Romania, were up nearly 2%, largely reflecting higher device costs, themselves due to the new commercial initiatives. Telekom Romania Mobile achieved a break-even in EBITDA after this in the Q4 . Due to a number of reclassification and one-offs between Q3 and Q4 , Romanian's EBITDA in the last Q2 has been volatile. At EUR 38 million for total year, it reached its full year target. Looking at the rest of our P&L, depreciation and amortization was up sharply in the quarter and full year, reflecting the EUR 116 million impairment of our business in Romania. Interest expense of nearly EUR 15 million was up in the quarter, mainly reflecting discounting effect related to personnel advances.
In the full year, however, interest expense was down 11% as we continued lowering the cost of our debt despite interest rate increases. Following refinancing activities earlier in the year, we should not need any additional resources in the short term, and we expect interest expense to decline further in 2023. Income taxes were down 3% in the quarter and down 29% in the full year, mainly reflecting the lower profit before tax and the negative impact on the deferred tax asset base, which was recorded in 2021, resulting from the corporate income tax rate reduction at the time. Turning to cash flow. Adjusted CapEx was EUR 199 million, up more than 24% from the Q4 last year.
This increase reflects continued investments in the expansion of our fiber to the home infrastructure and enrichment of our TV content. Full year adjusted CapEx amounted to EUR 638 million, in line with our guidance. As you have seen in our news release, we expect CapEx to remain approximately at that level in 2023. Adjusted free cash flow after the lease was EUR 153 million in the quarter and EUR 654 million in the full year. Full reported free cash flow was up nearly 24% to EUR 597 million, also in line with the target and reminder that that was supported by one-off cash tax benefit we had in 2022 in excess of EUR 100 million.
In 2023, we expect to report free cash flow of approximately EUR 500 million. This incorporates improvement in operational performance, lower financial expenses, but higher income taxes, as in 2022 we had this one-off cash tax benefit, which of course is not repeated in 2023. You are now familiar with the shareholder remuneration target that rounds out our guidance for 2023. We have made some minor changes to our remuneration policy to make room for a higher percentage of the total to be used for cash dividends, reaching almost 60% this year, which results in turn to a 3% increase in the cash dividend per share. We have announced a share buyback program of approximately EUR 175 million, which we anticipate launching in the coming weeks.
To conclude our opening remarks, we are now confident that all we have done this year is to cement customer loyalty, sometimes at the expense of incremental top line growth as necessary, as well as we have done to keep our cost base lean and which pay out in 2023 and in the future, irrespective of the growing uncertainties at the macro level and in our backyard. At this point, Michael, Panagiotis, and myself, with all our colleagues around the table are ready to take your questions. Operator?
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we'll begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Stamatios Draziotis with Eurobank Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello there, thank you very much for taking my question. The first one would be the obvious question about shareholder remuneration. Could you just shine a light on your decision to distribute a lower amount this year versus 2022? I mean, it's clear you opted for a similar payout as percentage of free cash flow.
Just wondering, given net debt actually fell in 2022, what exactly made you decide not to use this surplus to maybe, you know, smoothen out the variation in free cash flow generation, at least partly offsetting the, you know, the swing, the whole EUR 100 million swing year-over-year stemming from the difference in the cash stacks? Maybe, I mean, are you maybe setting aside a few extra million to potentially further accelerate or bring forward the fiber to the home deployment in the next couple of years? That's my first rather long question. Secondly, just wondering about competition. We've seen quite aggressive offers recently on the fixed side.
Do you feel that competitive dynamics have indeed intensified lately? Or do you think this is more of a seasonal issue, maybe also partly related to the changes in the Greek market after the merger of two of your competitors, in which case we should expect these pressures to tail off in the coming quarters? Lastly, on the OpEx front, just wondering what your expectations are regarding payroll, in view of the new labor agreement and energy costs, given the hedges you have in place? Thank you so much, and apologies for the long set of questions.
Thank you very much for the question. We will try to answer one by one. On your first topic about the shareholder remuneration policy, couple of points you had there. First of all, the swing between 2022 and 2023, this drop of about EUR 100 million in the overall, let's say, free cash flow generation, I would like to highlight again, as we did in our speech, that this is not due to operational issues. That's due to the fact that in 2022, we had the significant tax break, which of course is not repeated in 2023.
If you look at for like-to-like, the payout, which about 85% of payout of the free cash flow to total remuneration policy is not changed. It remains the same, and it follows the shareholder remuneration policy we announced last year. I think the one thing that we need to highlight is that we added much more flexibility in this year's remuneration policy in order to be able to split whatever amount we distribute towards the dividend part in order to ensure that the dividend part on a EUR per share basis will reflect the growing trend of the business and actually will grow from year-to-year.
According to the numbers we announced, the cash dividend per share distribution will be 3.3% higher versus 2022. Obviously that means that there is a smaller amount for share buybacks, but the total amount for share buyback is still significant enough to compensate on this front. To your other point why we don't distribute the 100% in order to make up of the difference is that the policy has to have some consistency year by year. Therefore, I think we will appreciate that we have a consistent approach, which we'll share about 85%, a little bit increased versus last year to this front. Competition, just to highlight part, the competition is not something new.
It didn't came to our life now. It's always been there. It's equally intense in fixed mobile and other segments. What we observing is maybe a spike because of the developments in the market in the last couple of quarters. Admittedly, in Q4, we also had the continuous translation of the business from the traditional fixed lines to datacomms, and that's why we also now inform about the total amount that is being that is being affected if we also add the datacomms.
We start of the year, we expect that the next couple of quarters will live along with these trends, not only on fixed, but also on the other fronts. If we look at the trends in Q4, we would expect to see the same trends in the next couple of quarters of the year. Before probably tailing off towards the second part of the year. I think the most important part here is that the success of our commercial activity is demonstrated by the fact that we are keeping our. Not only we are keeping our market share on the fixed customer base, but also we are monetizing increasingly the utilization of the fiber to the home, which is something that I think it's very important to note.
It's in our press release, that the utilization rate at the end of the year is 16% in the fiber to the home. A significant number if we take into account the rapid development of the rollout. OpEx, the continuous effort, I think, every quarter in the many years in the past, we are discussing about the continuous effort to drive the entire topics down. We are managing through our transformation program that we are running, and every year we have an improvement on this front. 2023, it's a year where we will absorb also the payroll effects, although not much of our employees are in the basic salary.
Because the, this affects the moving the basic salary affects the people that are in the basic salary, in the starting salary. All segments are under continuous putting in order to keep our trajectory of our OpEx savings, we should expect to keep this year in 2023. If we blend all things together, I think that the competitive pressures will always be there. We'll have some times where we have some spikes, and we need to do specific commercial policies in order to defend. On the other side, our other commercial policy is not just fixed, it's also mobile, ICT and other segments that are compensating on the trends. Again, apologies for the long answer, but it was a long question.
A very long term of questions. I appreciate the response. Thank you so much. Just a quick follow-up. I mean, there's obviously an amount which relates to surplus cash relating to the previous years, which you've referred in the past, you know, as a source of potential, you know, top-ups, let's say, in shareholder returns. Is this something you're still that's still on the cards at some point in the future? Is there any specific timeline? Thank you.
I think on that one, as we also say in our remuneration policy, any surplus that's been created, will be judged in the coming periods, in the next years. What is it needs to be done because every year is a different one. In the midterm, we will decide and we will announce, of course, what these surpluses will be done. For the time being, year by year, without considering the surpluses, the effort is to have a consistent remuneration policy that will strengthen the cash dividends appropriately in order to denote the growth trajectory of the company.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Osman Memisoglu with Ambrosia Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Many thanks for your time and the presentation. Just coming back to this 3.5% decline you kindly shared, retail fixed service revenues with datacomms. Would you share with us what this figure was for Q3? How you envision this figure evolving over the next few quarters? That's first one. Second one is on roaming. I'm not sure if you would care to share us the absolute number for the quarter. Finally, just want to make sure if there were any one-offs. It was a very impressive cost performance in Q4. Just want to check if there were any one-offs we should not extrapolate. Thank you.
Thank you for the question. To the fixed side, the Q4 numbers, including the datacomms, were not much different versus Q3, more or less in there. We should expect to see a little. I don't, I cannot comment on the exact percentage, but we will experience the same trends on all of our segments in the coming couple of quarters where we have the visibility. This one is again targeting to keep our ground on the customer base, and especially drive through this the fast migration of our broadband customers into fiber to the home and the higher speed, the upper end of the broadband market. This is roaming.
Q4 is the poorest quarter in the year, together with quarter one, but even on that one, we posted an increase of 60%. It was higher by 60%. For the total year versus 2021, our total roaming revenues reached about EUR 55 million, up almost 50% versus 2021. Up about 20% versus 2019, just to give you the whole trajectory of the OMNI business. This one is reflecting mostly the increasing number of visitors. Your last question about OpEx. In Q4, certainly benefited from when it's compared not only with Q4 of '21, but also with the previous quarters. It's benefiting by the declining trends in energy which were posted in Q4.
To your question, whether this is a one-off or not, nobody can say. Looking at the current price of energy, which is pretty much similar with the Q4, you know, this trajectory continues. For further outlook is as good as it might be with any forecast about the pricing, the price of the energy. On the rest part, I want to clarify again that on the personnel cost, we compare Q4 2022 with Q4 2021. In Q4 2021, we had Q4 2021. The comparison base, we had a one-off due to the spinoff and the repricing of the indemnities that we did, the separation indemnities.
That one is not, of course, repeating this year in Q4. Even payroll costs would be down by almost EUR 5 million-EUR 6 million if we didn't have this win. On the other fronts, no other increase, no other one-offs we had in Q4. For the completeness of the answer, still we are reporting, of course, in the OTE Group. In Romania, there have been some seasonalization in bookings of some expensive provisions between Q3 and Q4 of 2022. This is why the EBITDA swung a lot between Q3 and Q4.
One would take for Romania for, at least for the previous year, the average of the Q2 , in order to get a little bit of better understanding of the running rate of our Romanian business.
Understood. Thank you for the answer.
Yeah. Yeah.
Maybe just to follow up on Romania, since you mentioned it. What's driving, very briefly, the impairment?
The impairment is mostly an annual account value forensic exercise we will do. It has to do with normalizing or bringing in line the accounting, the current value with the current use performance of the company, so that this only we have in our books a much higher value for Romania coming from the past. Now we have to correct it by adjusting for the post separation period after we sold the fixed line business. This is just an accounting transaction which is necessary in order to have the proper reflection of the value of the Romanian business in our books.
Perfect. Thank you, Babis.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from the line of Iro Diacon George with Citi. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon, thank you for taking my questions. I just wanted to get a bit of a clarification around the fiber upgrade cycle that you mentioned already. If you don't mind giving us a bit of an indication of what kind of penetration you get a year on. You mentioned obviously with the pace of the rollout, it's difficult to have high penetration, but I guess One or Two from the earlier times when you rolled out fiber can give us a bit of a color as to the potential. Also, if you don't mind giving us some indications around your expectations of the voucher program, if that's finalized, whether there's anything that you can share in terms of the timing at which it could be implemented.
The second question is broader, and I know it was a bit asked earlier as well. Whether you are seeing anything in the market that concerns you in terms of ARPU trajectory in either fixed or mobile, or whether you expect that at some point we will continue to see the 3% or 4% growth in mobile and then maybe fixed as well could start to improve once the costs get easier. Thank you.
Thank you, George, for the questions. Allow me to try to answer the first one, and please correct me if I didn't, if I don't get the entire side of the question. I understand that that was around the utilization of the fiber to the home, and the way this is being actually attributed. First of all, we mentioned that our penetration at the end of the year was at 16%. This is just how many customers we have over how many homes we have passed.
We have to think here that the rollout, because of the buildup, since we started about March last year to build the network on full scale, it had mounted at the end of Q3, Q4. We added out of the almost 910,000 customers we have passed, almost half of them, they were passed in the last four, five months, or a little about the 40% of them. You can understand that this 16%, although it looks low, it's good because the utilization, when you build the network very fast, comes with a little bit of a delay.
However, now that we have a critical mass of about 1 million homes and all the progressive machine is working to sell and connect these customers, we expect this utilization rate to rise in the high 20s in the coming or at least above or around in mid-20s, to be honest, in 2023. If that was the spirit of your first question?
On the second part, on the second question about the trajectory, I think we have reflected in our comments that we feel that in the mobile, we continue to drive the ARPU monetization and also our customer base, thanks to our network and of course, the branding, the network and the customer service we have. That's not only evident in our customer base, but also the size of the business roaming revenues also reflect the better capture, especially with the touristic islands. If we look at the main segments of the business, we expect to see in 2023 to continue to grow our mobile business. To which extent this will depend, of course, on the dynamics in the market.
As we also mentioned in the next couple of quarters of this year, we expect fixed to move along the same lines before tailing off in the second part of the year. The rest of the business, like ICT, is growing satisfactorily, covering also the new projects we are getting through because of the RRF digitalization effort of the country, but also because of the proven record we have in delivering the projects that we undertake. Of course, we have also our smaller digital businesses like BOX and Payzy, which are, although they are small, they are also start getting some interesting size, which of course they will pay off in the coming periods and years.
Can I ask a follow-up? Sorry.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Please go ahead.
Just a follow-up on the voucher program, whether the timing is now a bit more, you know, easy to predict and whether the terms are finalized in terms of the program itself.
Yeah. Well, it's been in progress, I would say. It's not, it's not something that we don't expect to come before, let's say, the Q3 after summer. That's our, it's something that obviously the country, it would be beneficial to the country and to the citizens and the consumers. It will drive the pickup of the fiber to the home. We expect this to be ready to be launched towards Q3 and maybe the latest part of Q3.
Thank you.
Of the year.
The next question is from the line of Ng, Clara with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. Just two questions from me, please. I saw that Vodafone is increasing prices in enterprise segment. Given the new portfolio from Nova, which is, you know, a bit competitive, are you seeing B2B less impacted by their entry and hence, you know, there's more room for like price increases versus B2C? Second question is just on the free cash flow. Do you see any upside risk to that? In any case, like throughout the year if there are upside, would you consider a change in the shareholder remuneration at that point? Or is that not really on the card? Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you for the questions. First of all on B2B, our proposition B2B is not one-dimensional, it's multi-dimensional. Depending on the segment, small businesses, medium businesses, high businesses, we have a series of offerings and products that we are doing with our customers, which, to my point, that creates a stronger bonding rather than just pricing.
Obviously, there are always customers that are making adjustments based on pricing, but so far, in terms of what's happening in the market, we haven't seen any adverse offer in B2B. On the contrary, B2B has been growing, if we take out this technical adjustment between voice lines and datacomms.
On the free cash flow, our guidance for the year is the best guess we have, and the best estimate we have so far looking at the way it's been developed. Obviously, risks have been calculated in this amount, so unless something dramatic happens, very dramatic, we don't see any reason why we should not hit it. Obviously, this is in line with our overall remuneration policy to distribute the amount we have said without risking revising them.
All right. Thanks. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Once again, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. As a final reminder, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further audio questions. I will now hand over to management for questions from our webcast participants.
Okay. Thank you. I will be reading the questions that we have on the webcast. Could you please provide us with some comment on strong drop year-on-year in Romania segment EBITDA in Q4 2022?
Yes. I guess the question refers mostly to Q4. I think we commented the Q4 was impacted by two things. One was the seasonalization of certain expenses and being booked between Q3 and Q4. We should take the normalized EBITDA of the Q2 to find out the streamlined EBITDA of the year for the business. Also the fact that the launch of the new tariffs in Q4 in Romania, which admittedly they have brought this increase in customers, was accompanied by a launch offering with subsidies which also took its toll in Q4.
Again, for the clarity we say that we are happy with the delivery of 2022 at EUR 38 million of EBITDA, and which was very close to our guidance about a year ago of about EUR 40 million EBITDA of the year. Looking forward for 2023, just to complete the question, I think we should to take into our factor the different energy prices because 2022 was living under a long-term contract that expired at the end of 2022. Therefore, our view for 2023 is the organic EBITDA will be there, but there will be a toll for the energy part.
most likely we'll see a lower quarter number for 2023 versus the average of 2022.
Okay. One more on Romania. Could you please provide us with some update on your strategy in Romania? Considering that it hasn't purchased any 5G frequencies, it will most probably lag behind its competitors in terms of quality in the long term. Do you consider selling Romania mobile business?
I think our strategy in Romania is, it hasn't changed. First of all, it's Two dimensions. One is that, on the operating side, which is the most important part for time being, we are, as evidenced also by the commercial policy, we are trying to stabilize the operations in terms of top line. This is to some extent, bearing some fruits, if we look at the growth of the postpaid customer base in the country, which is a good reaction to our commercial policies and the tariffs we have launched. Also to stabilize the performance, the bottom line performance in order to have not losing free cash flow position.
Regarding the 5G frequencies, it's maybe like so, but we are launching our 5G services by farming the adequate frequency we have. We have shut down the 3G network and we have refarmed those frequencies to 5G and we are launching 5G under DSS technology, which is something that is bringing us quite okay with the expectations of the customers, at least for this time being. The second dimension is that, as always we have discussed, there is a continuous effort to monitor the market for any strategic moves that may make sense. Obviously, this is something that we can't comment any more, and therefore we'll do so if we have something meaningful to comment to the markets.
Okay. Thanks. Next we're coming back to Greece. What were OTE's total energy costs recorded in 2022? What level of energy costs do you expect in 2023?
I can comment on the total. The total energy cost in 2022 was around EUR 90 million. That was about EUR 15 million of about 18% growth increase versus 2021. For 2023, obviously that heavily depends on the trajectory of the prices. If we look at the price from the first 2-3 months of the year, they are moving along the Q4 numbers. We should expect this type of expense for 2023. It's very premature to put any number in that one because of the volatility in the markets especially on the price of electricity.
The next question is on competition in Greece. You mentioned competitive environment remains intense. What actions are you undertaking, if you can comment on these, to face this competition? Should we expect some sort of pressure on your margins? Does your guidance assume this intense competitive environment to continue for the full year or to smooth out over the quarters? I think the next question that is attached to that has been answered related to Romania.
Okay, regarding the competition part, as Babis mentioned before, both our main competitors, Nova and Vodafone, they have been quite active in recent months and of course they have aggressively launched offers both in fixed and mobile. Of course we have responded, and we are adjusting our prices properly and cautiously. We've done this many times in the past, and we're doing this in order to protect both our customer base and the market value. Obviously our aim is to maintain our customer share across all product lines, and because we have a superior quality, this allows us to maintain our premium pricing as we always have. We are selectively making our tariffs more attractive as it is important to retain the client and especially at the higher end, the higher ARPU, higher value customers.
Of course, we have all the resources and the flexibility to do this without changing our guidance.
I think the next one is in Greek, but I'll translate. How is the first couple of months of 23 going, and how is payzy developing? I think on the first, on 23, we will discuss in May, and we do not comment on a monthly basis rather, or, and we have provided our guidance for the full year, but the results will be commented upon in May. And
payzy, I think, we already mentioned the good news that we are approaching the 100,000 active customers pretty shortly. It's growing. The initial, let's say the first phase after the launch of the service which was to get a sizable scale in our customer base is coming into place. Of course, we will monitor the situation. We will update every quarter how it is going. It's going well, actually.
Okay. Next is about the buybacks. You were doing some buybacks while the stock price was EUR 17. How come you don't do any buybacks now that the price is fourteen and a half euros?
We're happy to see that the board approved the new scheme that was actually announced today. In the next couple of days, we will start again our share buyback activity from the level that you mentioned and at whatever level the market would be.
There's a final one on the webcast about are we selling the Romanian business. I think that has been, replied. We have one more question, on the calls. Operator, maybe you could pass the microphone.
Thank you. We have a question from Anankov Yevgeniy with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Thank you for the presentation. An opportunity to ask question. I have two, if I may. First one on the ICT segment. After 30% growth in 2022, do you think the comps are tough enough or this business still can grow maybe 15%-20% this year? On ICT in Greece again, is it still 10%-15% margin business or you see some improvement or deterioration incrementally? The second one on your free cash flow target for the year, can you comment if this includes another round of voluntary schemes and if yes, how big it is within your free cash flow target? Thank you.
On the ICT part, this year we benefited from actually the launch of the RRF and digitalization programs in the market. We are positive and we are positive that in also this year we see a sizable growth given also what we experienced in the first couple of months of the year. Now of course I can't update the % because we'll update every quarter, but the direction is that we'll grow also this year. Margin wise, we don't have any major swing versus the historical, let's say, of the margin that you mentioned and we have been reporting.
On the free cash flow that we announced, the EUR 500 million for this year, for 2023, incorporates another wave of voluntary schemes, which is more or less the same size as previous years. It's already in there.
Thank you. That is clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you.
Thank you all for your questions, your attention and questions, and for your continued interest in OTE. We will meet again in May to discuss the Q4 and the progress we are making on our 2023 trajectory. Good evening. Until next time.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling and have a good evening.