GO plc - Updated Financial Analysis Summary

On 15 May 2024, GO plc published an updated Financial Analysis Summary. The following are the main highlights of the expected financial performance and position of GO (relating to the Group’s telecoms operations in Malta) in 2024:

• Revenues are expected to decrease by 3.9% to €133.9 million principally due to the non-reoccurrence of one-off income generated from a business to business contract in 2023. Nonetheless, GO expects growth in core revenues through an increase in subscribers and higher average revenue per user.
• EBITDA is anticipated to drop by 10.7% to €53.9 million reflecting an increase in direct costs related to the access of the mobile network towers. As a result, the EBITDA margin is forecasted to ease to 40.2% compared to 43.3% in 2023.
• Net finance costs are forecasted to fall by 18.6% to €3.75 million as GO intends to pay back some of its bank borrowings from the proceeds of the sale of its mobile network passive infrastructure. Consequently, the interest cover is expected to improve to 14.4 times from 13.1 times in the previous financial year.
• Total debt is anticipated to drop by 8.5% (or €11.2 million) to €121 million, including €37.1 million in lease liabilities. The gearing ratio (calculated as total debt divided by total debt plus equity) is anticipated to remain relatively unchanged at 48.1%.
• In view of the decrease in EBITDA and the increase in net debt by €20.4 million to €111 million, the net debt to EBITDA multiple is forecasted to increase to 2.06 times compared to 1.50 times at the of 2023.