The financial results of the National Telecommunications Company (Sonatel), a subsidiary of the French telecom group Orange, reveal that the company has increased its investments by 5.7% in 2018 to maintain profitability in its five markets; Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. For this purpose, the group recorded a turnover of FCFA 1,022,000,000,000, up 5%, with a subscriber base of 29.7 million, down slightly by 1.7% compared to 2017.
In Senegal, its main market, the group invested the sum of 84.7 billion FCFA to maintain its leading position with 53% share of a market disputed with Tigo and Expresso. The company had a fleet of 8.7 million mobile subscribers, which accounted for 42% of the group’s total revenue. That is 429,240,000,000 FCfa.
In Mali, the group under the Orange brand, invested 57.2 billion FCfa to remain leader with 56% of share in a market disputed with Sotelma and Telecel. The company, which had 8.7 million mobile subscribers as of December 31, 2018, contributed 34% of Sonatel Group’s overall revenues. That is 347 480 000 000 FCfa.
On the side of Guinea, Sonatel, which operates under the trade name Orange, invested FCfa 33.5 billion in 2018 to retain the title of telecom market champion it shares with MTN and Cellcom. The company, which has a 63% share of the market, has a total of 7.3 million mobile subscribers as of December 31, 2018, generating a turnover of 183,960,000,000 FCfa. That is 18% of the value of Sonatel’s total turnover of FCFA 1 022 billion.
In Sierra Leone, where Orange remained second in the telecom market against Africell and Sierratel with 45%, the company invested 13.6 billion FCfa. Its 2 million subscribers enabled it to record a turnover of 40,880,000,000 FCfa representing 4% of the group’s overall financial performance.
Finally, in Guinea Bissau, Orange, which is also the Sonatel brand, has maintained the leading position with a 56% share of the market, compared to MTN. The company registered a total of 682,700 customers. FCfa 5.2 billion was invested for this purpose, with a turnover of FCFA 20.44 billion at 31 December 2018. This represents 2% of Sonatel Group’s overall sales.
At December 31, 2018, the Orange Group posted sales of € 10,811,000,000 (FCFA 7,098,489,822,718). The performance of the Sonatel group represented 14.4%.