Good afternoon, everyone. I am Diana Várkonyi, Head of Investor Relations at Magyar Telekom, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to our first quarter 2024 results conference call. Please note that today's presentation is also available on the Investor Relations section of our website. This event is being recorded for internal purpose only. By joining the presentation, you consent to being recorded. Throughout the presentation, your lines remain muted. Once we commence the Q&A session, you will be able to ask a question using the Raise Hand function, after which your microphone will be enabled, and you can mute, unmute yourself to ask the question. Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer on the second page of the presentation.
The information in this presentation includes forward-looking statement about expected future events and financial results, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. I'm pleased to welcome Ms. Daria Dodonova, our CFO, and Mr. Tibor Rékasi, our CEO, who will take you through the presentation and answer any question you may have. Now, I would like to hand over to Tibor to open the presentation.
Thank you, Dia. Good afternoon, everybody. Before we walk through our operational and financial performance during the first quarter of the year, let me provide a brief update regarding the steady progress we made in our key core strategic areas, namely network, customers, and resilience. As customer demand continues to be strongest for data products, we progressed our network upgrade process for both our fixed and mobile networks in Hungary. With close to 100,000 new access points added during the quarter, we are now able to provide gigabit access on our Hungarian fixed infrastructure to over 3.7 million households and businesses. This represents approximately 82% of our footprint and around 70% of total Hungarian access points. In parallel, the modernization of our mobile radio network also continued.
We now have 3,000 modernized sites across Hungary, allowing for higher data, higher data throughput across over 80% of our coverage area and supporting us to better serve the dynamically increasing data needs of our customers. I would also like to highlight the recently launched initiative, the migration of our CRM system to a new unified architectural platform. The complete migration of our residential customer base was successfully completed in March this year, and we plan to continue to migrate our business subscriber base as well. This will allow us to better serve individual customer needs, introduce tailor-made offers, accelerate product development, and at the same time, achieve operational savings. The first quarter also saw several favorable financial developments. This March, we again implemented a 15% inflation-based fee adjustment on Hungarian subscription fees.
We expect this to provide a strong boost to our financial performance and offset all cost-side increases. We also saw the full year impact of the utility tax termination materialized, as in line with accounting requirements, the utility tax for the full year used to be accounted for in the first quarter of the year. And finally, thanks to the more favorable energy price developments, we were able to reach a year-on-year saving of over 25% in electricity expenses in Hungary, despite the continuous increase in the electricity consumption of our networks, in parallel with the ongoing rise in generated data traffic. With this, let me move on to slide 4 and operational developments in the Hungarian mobile market. As shown by the charts at the bottom of the slide, the increase of mobile data users as well as usage continued into the first quarter of 2024.
The 18% year-on-year growth in the growth of average monthly mobile data usage among our customers could compensate for further declines in voice usage, allowing for organic growth in both postpaid and prepaid ARPUs. The implementation of the inflation-based fee adjustment last year and this March also further amplified postpaid ARPU development. Subscription revenues benefited from a year-on-year increase of 14.5% in the first two months of the year, and 15% in March 2024. As can be seen in the upper chart, the key driver of SIM card growth was again the dynamic uptake of machine-to-machine SIMs, driven by the increasing use of solutions such as smart meters used by utility companies and alert watches for the elderly.
Although these SIMs typically have a much lower ARPU contribution, thanks to the strong postpaid segment performance and continued migration from pre to postpaid packages, blended ARPU in Q1 2024 rose by over 10% year-on-year. Building on the continued increase in mobile data demand, we decided to renew our mobile packages with an increasing focus on customers requiring the flexibility of unlimited monthly data allowance. At the beginning of April, we introduced an upgraded portfolio with five different unlimited data plans to meet different needs. On top of the unlimited data allowance, we provide additional services such as multi-SIM, cybersecurity, Netflix or HBO, as embedded options in the package. At the same time, we continue to include 5G access only in these unlimited data packages.
Moving now to slide 5 and the Hungarian fixed service market, the favorable trends seen in recent years have continued. Our overall household base increased by 43,000 in the past 12 months, with expansion again driven by the strong demand for our broadband services and the highest growth seen among those households that subscribed for broadband and TV services. Although the continued erosion of our fixed voice customer base led to some decline among both single-play and triple-play households during the period, these were more than offset by the growth of the double-play base. Similarly to mobile ARPU, fixed ARPU were positively impacted by the inflation-based fee adjustment of the subscription fees. With regards to voice ARPU, the fee adjustment fully compensated for usage decline, leading to a 4.6% year-on-year increase.
TV ARPU rose by 11.6%, while broadband ARPU was up by 17.3%, reflecting that on top of the fee adjustment, migration among customers to higher bandwidth packages continued. The number of residential customers who opted to sign up for our gigabit speed broadband package grew by over 20% in the past year, while those who still use the entry-level plan shrank by a similar rate. Going forward, supported by the continued expansion of our gigabit network, we will strive to grow our broadband subscriber base and encourage customers to use our gigabit packages. With that, I'd like to hand over to Daria, who will provide a more detailed overview of our financial results.
Thank you, Tibor. Good afternoon, everybody. Let me start with our first quarter revenue performance on slide six. Magyar Telekom Group revenue increased by more than HUF 28 billion in the first quarter of this year. This was due to the growth in our underlying performance, coupled with a positive impact of the Hungarian inflation-based fee adjustment, which led to higher subscription fee revenues across all service lines. The continuous growth in mobile data demand and consequent increase in mobile data revenue was the key driver of mobile service revenue growth in the first quarter of this year. Out of the almost HUF 13 billion, just over HUF 10 billion came from increased mobile data revenue. Mobile retail voice and SMS revenues delivered an additional HUF 3.4 billion year-on-year growth.
These increases were moderately hit by the negative impact of the reduction in Hungarian mobile termination rates, which came into effect on January 1, 2024. Rates were cut by more than 50% to 0.768 HUF per minute, in accordance with EU regulations. However, I would love to highlight that as fees were cut in a symmetrical way for all operators, our related costs declined proportionally, resulting in no profitability impact. Our fixed broadband and TV customer base grew further, a manifestation of our efforts to progress our key strategic initiative, digitization of Hungary. This customer base expansions, coupled with higher ARPU levels, delivered HUF 7 billion revenue growth year on year.
Increased sales volumes, the lower present value discount impact on installment sales, and close to HUF 3 billion higher third-party export sales combined to result in 19% higher equipment revenue year-on-year. The close to flat system integration and IT revenue numbers reflect stable customer demand in that segment. Moving on to slide 7. Increased EBITDA after leases was driven by the strong revenue performance and consequent strong gross profit performance, coupled with a positive impact of the repealed utility tax. As I previously said, Magyar Telekom's positive underlying operational trends were a key driver of our revenue and gross profit growth, together with a positive impact of last year and this year's fee adjustments. Alongside our revenue growth, the supplementary telecommunication tax also increased.
In the first quarter of 2024, it was almost 23% higher than the same period in 2023. The higher employee-related expenses reflect the wage increases from July 1, 2023, in the Hungarian operation. Other operating expenses decreased by more than HUF 1 billion, or by approximately 4%, driven by lower energy costs. As Tibor said earlier, we recorded a year-on-year saving in electricity expenses of more than 25%. This offset cost side inflationary pressures and increased in other expenses. EBITDA growth was driver of the sharp rise in the first quarter net income, as you can see on slide 8. During the first quarter of this year, thanks to the more favorable liquidity positions and the positive change on derivative positions, net financial expenses were lower compared to the base period.
As well as the business-as-usual financing in the first quarter, we refinanced one part of our loan portfolio. Our aim was to have a more balanced mixed maturity profile in the coming years. High depreciation and amortization expenses reflect increases in IFRS 16, right-of-use asset-related depreciation, and temporary higher depreciation related to software licenses. Income tax expenses were up by 62.3% year-on-year, reflecting the year-on-year higher profit levels. Adjustments to reported net income for 2024 of HUF 4.4 billion were driven by unrealized Forex exchange losses, coupled with some realized gains on those cross-currency interest rate swaps positions that related to those loans, which we refinanced during the first quarter of this year. Turning to slide nine, and free cash flow and capital expenditure.
As illustrated on the left-hand side chart, our free cash flow amounted to HUF -900 million in Q1 2024, an increase of almost HUF 10 billion year-on-year due to profitability improvements. Because of the higher receivable balances and higher handset supply related outpayments, our working capital deteriorated by almost HUF 15 billion compared to the base periods, and halved the positive impact coming from EBITDA growth. The weakening Hungarian forint led to higher foreign exchange losses in the first quarter of this year. Turning now to investments. Magyar Telekom Group booked temporary lower CapEx year-on-year. As the chart on the right-hand side illustrates, the 16% low investment level is the combined result of the higher network-related investments, offset by the temporary lower CPE CapEx and lower CapEx in North Macedonia.
The decline is a result of the completion of our radio access network modernization project and lower TV content capitalization. Looking ahead, we remain committed to maintain our solid market positions and operational momentum, allowing us to meet our stated targets for revenue and EBITDA as shown on slide 10. Regarding adjusted net income, we are upgrading the target to circa HUF 140 billion, thanks to more favorable yield environment, resulting in lower interest expenses than previously anticipated. With regards to free cash flow, we are now targeting circa HUF 130 billion, as the expected level of working capital deterioration incorporated in our estimates has been revised downwards due to more positive external developments. That concludes our presentation, and I will now hand back to Dia.
Thank you very much, Daria. We are now happy to take any questions you may have. Please use the Raise Hand function, following which your microphone will be enabled, and you can unmute yourself to ask a question. Hi, Nóra, you can unmute yourself, and you can raise your question. Good afternoon.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for the presentation, and congrats on the strong set of Q1 results. Three questions from my side, please. Firstly, what's your outlook for equipment and revenue and IT segment for the rest of the year? Secondly, on the share buyback option, what if the total amount of HUF 24 billion will not be exploited? Will you distribute the remaining amount in a different way? Here, I mean, for example, an extraordinary dividend. And thirdly, do you see risks of the abolition of the special tax in 2025? Thank you.
Hi, Nóra, Daria speaking. Let me start with a revised all of your questions. Your first question was relating to the supplementary telco tax. Based on the existing legislation, supplementary telco tax is valid till the year-end of 2024. Coming to the share buyback question, we've got the authorization from the annual general meeting for the execution of the share buyback up till 24 billion HUF in 2024.
Just to ensure that we got the question right, you were asking about the IT revenues, right?
Exactly, and also equipment revenues, please.
So basically, the IT revenues in Q1 was around HUF 20 billion, in turn, represented a 1.3% growth year-over-year, Q1 to Q1.
Yes, sorry, and can I have a follow-up to this? So what's, what's the outlook for these segments, equipment and IT, for the rest of the year?
I think we believe it's gonna be very similar to last year. We don't expect a big movement on the IT market.
And when it comes to the handset revenues, because I think that was another question, right? Our Q1 results are not 100% representative to make a conclusion based on the run rate, because as indicated in my presentation, the largest part of the year-over-year increase, approximately HUF 3 billion, is coming from the third-party sales... So this result is not representative for making a conclusion for the full year estimation. Also, here, without this one-off, it is fair to expect that the results will be comparable with the previous year without this one-off export sales impact. Thanks for the explanation. Afternoon, Konrad. I enabled your microphone, so you can use your microphone and re-raise your question.
Okay, great. Thank you. So I was wondering why despite the strong EBITDA growth in the first quarter, but even adjusting for utility tax, it was around 30% year-on-year, but you kept your guidance unchanged. So I was wondering whether do you expect this good trends to deteriorate in the upcoming quarters, or is it just your, well, let's say, conservative stance? Thank you.
Let me answer your question, and just to double-check, if you're referring to the revenue and EBITDA or both, but let me maybe reflect on that one. Following what I've just said about the handset revenues, our total revenue performance in the first quarter is not necessarily representative to making the conclusions and do just a simple run rate logic for the full year expectations. Why so? First of all, as already mentioned, the equipment revenue substantial increase is driven by rather an irregular and not recurring impact from the third-party sales, HUF 3 billion year-over-year. Second, we currently see risks regarding SI and IT revenue because of the economic pressure in the country.
Therefore, although we have a strong support, already in the first quarter of 1 month of the inflation-based fee adjustment and strong increase in the revenue-producing customers, we still remain committed to deliver our original guidance of 5%-10% year-over-year growth when it comes to the revenue. On the EBITDA side, first of all, obviously, the explanations from the revenue side will be relevant for EBITDA as well. We have to keep in mind that the Q1 on the cost side is also not representative for the run rate logic, and just extrapolation of the trend.
Because of the full impact of the utility tax termination, we book the full annual impact in the first quarter, so the positive impact of the abolishment of utility tax will not be visible anymore in the second, third quarter, because it's booked in the first quarter. Plus, we will see further increase of the employee-related expenses in the Q2, Q3 and Q4 versus the Q1. Therefore, we are remain committed to delivering our original guidance on the EBITDA of 20%-25% year-over-year growth. Any further question, please use Raise Hand function, and I can enable your microphone to raise your question. Thank you again joining us for today. Please note that a transcript of this conference will be available on our investor website shortly. If you have any follow-up questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.