Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Konstantinos Yakovlos, our operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Türk Telekom conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the 2025 Q1 financial and operational results. Copy of this will be listened on in order and account for this being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may circle on our break to help us think spelling zero on your telephone. We are here with the management team and today's speakers are CEO Ümit Önal and CFO Ömer Karademir. Before starting, I kindly remind you to review the disclaimer on the earnings presentation. Now, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Ümit Önal, CEO. Sir, you may now proceed.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to our 2025 first quarter results conference call. Thank you for joining us today. Before I start my speech, I would like to kindly inform you that I will have to leave a bit early due to a last-minute change in my schedule. We'll try to take a few questions if time allows. However, my colleagues will be here and ready to address your questions. An escalating tariff war has raised significant concerns around the World Trade Order, sending shockwaves to financial markets globally. At home, the CBRT has swiftly introduced a series of measures to contain the recent volatility in financial markets driven by the local developments and global tariff conflicts. The bank paused its easing cycle in its April meeting and opted for an unexpected 350 basis point hike in policy rate to reemphasize priority on bringing inflation down and to maintain lira stability.
While the CBRT left its year-end inflation forecast range of 19%-29% unchanged, year-end inflation expectation moved to 30% from 28% in the April market expectations survey, which was conducted before the CBRT's recent rate decision. Finally, inflation fell below 38% according to the recently announced April data in an ongoing, albeit slower disinflation trend as the monthly CPI picked up to 3% from 2.5% in March. We have been closely watching the recent developments and market volatility in order to assess their potential impact on the subscriber behavior and our businesses, which seemingly has been absent so far. As such, we stand confident about the 2025 guidance we shared earlier, but remain alert on both the local and global news flow ahead. We made a spectacular start to the year, primarily driven by the maintained strength in fixed internet and mobile performances.
In fixed internet, even to date, very few ISPs followed our retail tariff price revision introduced around mid-March. Competition in mobile sectors somewhat eased from its peak in December, but remained high in general with intense promotional activity in the aftermath of general price adjustments. Data consumption once again confirmed solid demand from subscribers. Now, starting with financial and operational overview, on slide number three. Consolidated revenues increased by 18% to TRY 46 billion. Excluding the fixed rate accounting impact, revenue growth was also 18%. Once again surpassing the top-line growth, consolidated EBITDA rose by 27% annually, TRY 18 billion, along with a strong 260 basis point margin expansion YoY to 39%. Net profit for the period came in at TRY 5 billion. CapEx stood at TRY 8 billion. On average, free cash flow was TRY 8 billion compared to TRY 3 billion first quarter of last year.
Net leverage improved to 0.7x . Slide number four, net subscriber additions. We closed the quarter with 53.6 million subscribers in total, up 447,000 QoQ. Excluding the 155,000 lost in the fixed-wide segment, quarterly net additions were 602,000 despite a relatively low seasonality in Q1. Mobile remained the largest contributor, but fixed internet also surpassed our expectation for the period. In fixed internet, subscriber dynamics were shaped by seasonality, Ramadan, and largely unchanged competitive and pricing environments over the first quarter. Fixed-wide net base was left around 15.4 million. Led by the retail segment, we recorded 53,000 net additions. It would be reasonable to expect the impact of the latest pricing action in the retail market to become more visible in the second quarter. General turn rate dropped both QoQ and YoY.
On the mobile front, subscriber acquisition remained a high priority for all operators in Q1, but it would be fair to say competition rolled back a bit from the attempt in December. Delivering a better-than-expected performance, the mobile segment added 511,000 subscribers on net basis, with another stunning quarterly performance pushing up the total base to 27.9 million. While the post-paid segment added 593,000 subscribers in a repetitive strength for quarters, the prepaid segment posted an 82,000 net loss, outperforming better than we expected. Fueled by the post-paid segment, the number of new acquisitions recorded the highest first quarter performance since 2014. The prepaid acquisitions also compared higher to the same period of last year. Landed churn rate dropped YoY and compared favorably to our expectation. Slide number five, fixed broadband performance.
In accordance with our focus on output growth, we took the first pricing action of the year and revised fixed broadband tariffs in the retail segment on March 17. We have seen very few competitors follow suit so far. We have extended the contract structure to 18 months from 15 months in new sales, as disinflation continues. Finally, we have submitted our application for a price revision in the wholesale segment to the regulator. Pre-contracting performance beat our expectation, whereas upselling remained quite strong. Volumes in both exceeded the levels seen in the same period of last year. We aim to take benefit of the higher volume of contract renewals due in 2025 in order to support our growth through recontracting and upselling. Robust demand for high-speed prevailed in the first quarter. 50 Mb enabled packages made 72% of new sales and 54% of recontracting.
Average package speed of our subscriber base increased by 48% YoY to 74 Mb . 51% of our subscribers now use 50 Mb enable packages compared to 38% a year ago. The share of fiber subscribers in our total fixed broadband base increased to 90% from 86% a year ago. Surpassing prior quarter's performance, Q1 also increased by a remarkable 19% YoY. That combined with a 1% growth in average subscriber base produced a solid 21% rise in FBB revenues. Moving on to mobile performance, slide number six. Sticking to dynamic pricing, all operators took a first pricing action in January, but tried to balance subscriber dynamics with promotional campaigns over February and March. Once again, the activity mostly shaped around the post-paid segment, but we have seen some momentum in the prepaid segment also.
In some cases, campaigns were very attractive in pricing and stayed open for quite extended periods of time. The MNP market also contracted from the last quarter after hitting its record high volume in December, but kept advancing on an annual basis. We recorded the highest net port volume of the past 11 years in January, which was a relatively milder period in competitive pressures. Following this spectacular performance, we stayed on top of the MNP market as the most preferred mobile operator on a consistent basis. Post-paid net app in the last 12 months totaled 2.1 million, reaching a historic high and growing the post-paid sales by an overwhelming 11% YoY. The ratio of post-paid subscribers in total portfolio climbed to 76% as of Q1, compared to 72% a year ago.
In a strong trend, mobile blended output showed no signs of dilution despite quarters of strong net subscriber additions, proving that we keep expanding our subscriber base in a fine balance. The 19% YoY increase in blended output was a combination of 24% growth in post-paid output and 10% contraction in prepaid output. That, together with a 5% growth in average subscriber base, produced an impressive 24% rise in mobile revenues. On slide number seven, let's take a look at how Q1 figures compared to our full-year guidance. We are highly satisfied with the first quarter performance, which put us on track with our annual targets. The ongoing disinflation process has nicely supported the operational performance, along with a strong revenue generation versus a relatively mild effects evolution in Q1 2025, despite the regular employee salary adjustment we implemented at the beginning of the year.
18% operating revenue growth and 39% EBITDA margin held well with our full-year guidance, pointing to respective range of 8%-9% and 38%-40%. 18% CapEx intensity in the reporting period is yet distant to our 28%-29% guidance range, but this is due to the typical seasonality in our CapEx spending, implying a slower pace in early months and an acceleration later in the year. Although Q1 results seem to pose upside risk to our full-year guidance, particularly at the margin front, we prefer to observe the next quarter performance as well as the domestic and global macro environment before we consider any revisions. Before I conclude my presentation, I am pleased to confirm that we are now working on the final steps of renewing Türk Telekom's fixed-line concession agreement together with the related parties. As Mr.
Mehmet Şimşek, the Minister of Treasury and Finance, which holds a 25% stake in our company, has recently stated the concession period will be extended, leaving no doubt around the direction and nature of the progress in this matter critical for Türkiye's digitalization agenda. We are confident that the outcome of this healthy process will prioritize public benefit, sector requirements, and Türk Telekom's mission to create value for its stakeholders on a consistent and sustainable basis. I would also like to take the opportunity to introduce Ömer Karademir, our recently appointed CFO, who has taken over the role from Kaan Aktan. Ömer has joined us from the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and holds a great deal of experience in asset liability management, risk management, liquidity management, and capital allocation. I want to thank Kaan for his remarkable contributions to Türk Telekom over his long years of dedicated service.
He will remain an advisor to Türk Telekom for some time to ensure a smooth transition of his strategic role. Thank you. Ömer, the floor is yours now.
Thank you. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for such a warm welcome. I am truly pleased to be part of this big family and will be working hard with my colleagues to contribute to Türk Telekom's strategic growth. We are now on slide number nine, financial performance. Consolidated revenues surged to TRY 46 billion from TRY 39 billion a year ago, on a strong growth trend exceeding 18%. Revenue growth was slightly ahead of our budget, which incorporates a faster pace for the top line in the first half and a moderating one in the second half, given last year's base effect in opposite directions in the same period.
Excluding the IFRIC 12 accounting impact, Q1 revenue was TRY 44 billion, ahead of our expectation and up nearly 18% YoY, including increases of 21% in fixed broadband, 24% in mobile, 16% in TV, and 31% in corporate data, as well as contractions of 9% in international, 2% in fixed voice, and 6% in other segments. Fixed internet and mobile have once again led growth, together making 76% of operating revenue. The two lines of business made the largest contribution to growth, with more than TRY 6 billion higher revenues in total YoY. Our evolution remains robust thanks to continued subscriber expansion, pricing actions, and healthy upside performance. That combined with respective average subscriber base expansion in excess of 1% and 5% in fixed internet and mobile has driven the robust revenue performance.
Growth in corporate data and equipment sales can largely be explained by price adjustments, whereas contraction in ICT solutions is mostly attributable to an expectedly milder year in general, driven both by the high base effect and anticipated sector dynamics. Additionally, some revenues shifting into the next quarter amplified the first quarter softness. In our international business, the change in EUR exchange rates remaining well behind the annual inflation rate pressured the performance in the returns. Continued erosion in the voice segment also led overall revenues lower YoY. Moving on to EBITDA, direct costs rose nearly by 6% YoY with interconnection costs and equipment and technology sales costs coming down 6% and 21%, while taxes and cost of that debt going up 22% and 70% respectively. The declining interconnection cost was driven by current and inflation accounting impacts.
The drop in equipment and technology sales cost was parallel to contracting revenues from ICT solutions offered by Türk Telekom and its subsidiary Innova in the period. Tax expense rose in parallel with mobile revenue growth. Commercial costs went up by 13% YoY and other costs by 16%. Annual change in commercial costs were once again primarily driven by higher spending on marketing, advertising, brand, and corporate communications. Under other costs, network expense remained flat YoY in the absence of any electricity tariff hikes within the first quarter, while personnel costs rose by 15%, largely owing to the regular non-union personnel salary adjustment we take at the beginning of the year. Semi-annual adjustments to union personnel salaries for the period covering September 2024 and February 2025 has also taken effect starting from March as per the terms of the agreement we announced back in November.
Consequently, OpEx to sales ratio dropped below 61% from 63% in the first quarter of 2024 and stayed nearly flat quarter on quarter thanks to continuously improving operational levels. As a result, consolidated EBITDA grew 27% annually to TRY 16 billion from TRY 14 billion in the same period of last year, along with a strong 260 basis points margin expansion YoY to above the 36% mark. Excluding the IFRIC 12 accounting impact, EBITDA margin was slightly ahead of 40%. Recall that we had changed the calculation of amortization expense in last quarter. Accordingly, we had amortized the related intangible fixed assets either throughout their remaining useful life or throughout the expected expansion period of the fixed-line concession agreement, whichever shorter. The so-called adjustment was applied for the amortization expense of the related assets starting from 2024 but was recorded as a one-time adjustment in Q4.
We have now restated Q1 2024 depreciation and amortization line for this adjustment in order to present Q1 2025 financials on a like-for-like basis. Accordingly, we recorded TRY 8 billion of operating profit, up 93% YoY, once again crystallizing our robust performance. Coming to the bottom line, TRY 5.5 billion of net financial expense was 29% lower in annual comparison but 4% higher on quarterly basis. Annual trend can largely be explained by a 17% increase in US dollar and euro currency rates on average, well behind inflation. Lower net debt in its healthy operational performance and free cash flow generation also helped. However, the quarterly change in exchange rate was about 9%, again largely intuitive for the trend in net financial expense QoQ . Hedging costs have also gone up a bit due to recent volatility in financial markets.
Effects to impact should be more visible from second quarter of 2025 onwards, along with CBRT's recent tightening. We recorded TRY 3.5 billion of tax expense in total, largely driven by the deferred taxes, leading to 41% affected tax rate. The deviation from the ordinary corporate tax rate was largely driven by the indexation of last year's tax assets to Q1 2025 as per the inflation accounting principles and the gap between PPI and CPI. As a result, we generated TRY 5 billion of net income in the first quarter, growing by more than 45% annually. Moving on to slide number 10, TRY 8 billion of CapEx spending pointed to a 28% increase YoY, owing to last year's significantly low base. CapEx intensity stood close to 18% for the period.
Moving on to slide number 11, debt profile, net debt over EBITDA has diminished down to 0.0 times from 0.8 a quarter ago. Cash and cash equivalents, of which 41% is FX rate, totaled TRY 8 billion. The share of local currency borrowings within the total debt portfolio was 6%. The FX exposure included $1.7 billion of FX denominated debt, $1.4 billion of total hedge position, and $90 billion of hard currency cash. The hedge amount included a mere $20 million of FX protected time deposit, expectedly down from $260 million a quarter ago. As the CBRtT ceased to offer FX protected time deposits, in fact, the balance in this instrument has entirely diminished as of April. We are now on slide number 12. We closed Q1 with $200 million short FX position.
Excluding the ineffective portion of the hedge portfolio, namely the participating cross-community swap contracts, our short position was $280 million. According to the sensitivity of the profit and loss statement to exchange rate movements, a 10% depreciation of TL would have negative TRY 1 billion impact on Q1 PBT, assuming all else constant. Similarly, a 10% depreciation of TRY would have a positive TRY 1.1 billion impact. Finally, we generated gross TRY 8 billion of unleveraged free cash flow in Q1. Strong operating performance and collection of remaining insurance coverage for the 2023 earthquake led a tripling free cash flow YoY. This concludes my presentation. We can open up the Q&A session.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we will begin the question and answer session. I would like to inform you that Türk Telekom will have translation during the Q&A session.
Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star or the bell icon on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, then you may press star and two. Please use your hands when asking a 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 comes from the line of Singh Madhvendra with HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you all for taking my question and congratulations for the results. Two questions from my side. You say on revenue growth, your guidance is high single-digit kind of revenue growth. You have delivered very strong double-digit growth. I was wondering whether you are being conservative in the guidance or are you expecting any significant slowdown in the coming quarters? You should talk about that.
The second question is on margins. You already had the salary hike and your margins are almost close to the 40% level. I suspect the salary hike came later in the quarter. Do you expect this margin level to be going forward or will there be some impact on margins in the coming quarter because of the salary hike?
Thank you. In our guidance, as we have discussed and as we have stated in our slippage, our guidance for the revenue growth was 8%-9%, but the realization is somewhere around 17%. We are not conservative, but as you may expect, it is too early to make a revision in the very first half of the year. What is behind this? If you are asking what is behind this high revenue growth, we can say that one reason for that is last year's low basis.
The other one we can say is the inflation expectation. Last but very important one, the operational income growth slightly above our expectations with the balance management of subscriber and ARPU. These three main indicators impacted a higher growth than our year's guidance. We should wait since we are closely monitoring the market and the international global development at the moment.
Let me add a few things on top of that. I think what's really important here is 8%-9% for the full year. Remember that last year we grew the operating revenues by 7% in the first half and it escalated to 17% in the second half of the year. That is the kind of thinking that you should be forecasting for this year's first half and the second half, taking this thinking effects into account.
Also, I mean, we said explicitly in our press release that the revenue growth so far has been a little bit ahead of our expectation thanks to, I mean, very strong pricing, subscriber growth, and upsell and contracting activities. Also, I mean, there have been some local and international developments that we are a little bit conservative about the inflation outlook. As you follow, I mean, it's good that the central bank is still keeping the tight monetary policy. They increased the—they did a tight hike. Also, I mean, they are considering perhaps reviewing the inflation, and that is affecting the inflation-adjusted numbers in our forecast already.
That is why we do acknowledge that the result pointed some upside risk, but I think it's reasonable in this kind of uncertain environment to wait a little bit and consider a revision in the second half if there needs to be. With regards to your question about the margin, basically the wage effect has entered to the result. First quarter is both for the non-union salaries, personnel salaries, starting from January. Then the union adjustment has been made in March. That will be seen in the second quarter of the year more so. I mean, I don't think there is a significant downside risk to EBITDA margin. Only, I mean, we did again say in the press release that some of the costs are lagged a little bit. We do expect them to accelerate starting from the second quarter.
That is in line with our budget. 38%-40% range is still viable, and we started the quarter at 39%, which is very, very strong. I think, I mean, unless there is any surprises, negative surprises in the macro outlook, we do not expect any downside risk to those numbers.
Maybe for the margin side, I can make a contradiction on that. The expected increase in electricity tariffs also was later than we expect. We have not seen the impact of these expenditures in the first quarter of the year.
That is very, very helpful. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Evgeniya Bystrova with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, hello. Thank you very much for the presentation and the charts and the results. I have just maybe one question.
Previously, you were thinking about potentially coming to the market later this year and considering session renewal and to tender etc. Given the current levels and just the rates moved, what are you—how are you thinking about potential issuance? Are you thinking to bring it, or would you consider other sources of funding in case you need to? Thank you.
Thank you. Based on your financing, our net debt over EBITDA is very low. It is 0.7 for this quarter. Thanks to our cash-generating operations, we do not need—we have not needed to borrow up to now for our operations. Upcoming 5G and renewable concession, yes, we will need to borrow from the market. We are still monitoring and following the model and the calendar of these two big operations.
Based on the magnitudes of these two main items, we are going to make the exact plan of our financing. We have several options on that. We can borrow from international markets as we have made last year with EUR 500 million bonds. We can also borrow from supermarkets. We are close to monitoring. We have limits in domestic markets. Still, we have limits in domestic markets. We have other financing instruments as ECAs. There are lots of options, and the market is reachable. The creditors have demands to give support financing to us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. We now turn the conference over to Türk Telekom Management for any closing comments. Thank you.
Excuse me. Apologies for the interruption. We do have one last question from Demirtaş Cemal with Ata Invest. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you for the presentation. And congratulations for the speaker. My question again relates to quotation and, of course, the 5G. Do you have any models working on that from the previous experience? I don't know. It may be early. At least when we think we will have at least some picture, color on the potential or possible cases after 2027. At some point, are you going to share something on that more clear about the size? Because we have been expecting this year at some point, but I see that maybe because of some of the reasons it's not coming soon. At what time we are going to be more concerned about the direction or the potential costs related to concession and, of course, say 5G?
I know it's very early maybe, but at some point, we need to go forward. The investment, for instance, how the investment in airfields will evolve going forward in the case any example you have in the I see some small concession agreements with more smaller populations. When do you think we will have at least some picture or ability to picture the situation? Thank you.
Thank you for the question. I think you're right. Let's remember that the concession expiring on February 26th. We are hoping that this will be concluded by this year. Since what we have communicated with you has been very consistent so far, we said that we are working on a process of extension or the renewal of the concession. This was the only process that we have communicated with the investors and the analysts.
Although, I mean, there were different views both here and there. Therefore, in that sense, I mean, we do think that the Treasury and our Finance Minister's latest statements about the extension of the concession agreement very firmly is very valuable, showing that the direction and the nature of the progress in this very important agenda for Türkiye. Remember that this was, I mean, an agreement reached in 2001, and it will be hopefully renewed for the next 20-25 years. The discussions are being held very carefully, and it's taking a little bit of time to bring everyone to a consensus. Again, I mean, so far what we have communicated is there will be a formula, and this is really the only formula that everyone is speaking from, the golden formula that will prioritize Türkiye's financial sustainability, healthy, I mean, business continuity, and also healthy investment trajectory.
That is very important to us because we have so far been by far the largest investor in this domain, and we want to protect that position. These are the very discussions that we are talking about. The model is really, I mean, we don't know. If we knew, we would share with you. I mean, the alternative, as our CEO has several times mentioned in the past, it could be a lump sum payment. It could be a revenue-sharing model, or it can be a combination of both. It will not, I mean, simply be driven by those. It will be driven by Türk Telekom's future plans in order to remain competitive in its business and in order to maintain its investment trajectory. That is what I can share on the concession side.
On 5G, I think this is more a sectoral, I mean, theme rather than just Türk Telekom's topic. We know that, I mean, the agenda from the, again, I mean, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is to hold a calendar in the second half of the year and then plan a lot starting from next year. We are really, I mean, working on exactly this calendar. It was also stated that the feedback is going to be the same then, 3500. That is going to be the main 5G frequency. Looks like or doing upstream. Also, there are discussions around 126,000, the latter of which is the industrial frequency. Again, I mean, you know that we have included this year's number in our packet, but that only includes the preparation work. It does not include the tender packet. We will not know.
We are also eager to hear from the ministry the calendar and the details. Once we know, we will share with you. I hope this is helpful.
Very helpful. Thank you. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, I will now turn the conference over to Türk Telekom Management for any closing comments. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We'll see you next time. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded. You may disconnect your telephones. Thank you for calling.