Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS Q1 2024 Earnings Report

Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.10
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $996.26 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2024
• Date: 5/27/2024
• Time: N/A
• Conference Call Date: Monday, May 27, 2024
• Conference Call Time: 1:00PM ET

Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (NYSE:TKC), traded on the NYSE under the symbol TKC, is a leading integrated telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey. Since its founding in 1994 as the country’s first GSM operator, Turkcell has expanded its footprint to offer a comprehensive suite of mobile voice, messaging and data services to millions of subscribers. The company has made significant investments in nationwide 4.5G and 5G network infrastructure to deliver high-speed connectivity across both urban centers and rural regions.

In addition to its core mobile offerings, Turkcell provides fixed broadband and fiber-optic services tailored to consumer and enterprise customers. Its enterprise solutions include cloud computing, data center operations, managed network services and cybersecurity, supporting businesses in their digital transformation efforts. Through its digital platforms, the company also offers value-added services such as mobile financial services, digital TV streaming, content distribution and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Turkcell maintains regional operations and strategic partnerships in markets including Northern Cyprus, Ukraine and Belarus, and engages in roaming agreements and joint ventures to broaden its international reach. The company places a strong focus on research and development, collaborating with both local and global partners to innovate in areas such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics and next-generation connectivity solutions.

Governed by a Board of Directors and an executive management team, Turkcell emphasizes sustainability and corporate social responsibility initiatives. The company supports digital inclusion programs, environmental stewardship projects and community development efforts across its operating regions, reinforcing its commitment to long-term social and economic growth.

Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• In Q1 2024 Turkcell delivered robust results, with revenue up 11.8% to TRY 31 bn, EBITDA +23% to TRY 12.8 bn and net profit of TRY 2.6 bn, leading to an upgraded guidance of low double‐digit revenue growth for 2024.
• ARPU growth remained strong, driven by rational price adjustments: mobile ARPU +17% year-on-year and fiber residential ARPU +14%, supported by postpaid additions of 472 K and fiber net adds of 48 K in Q1.
• Operational metrics improved further, with mobile churn at a six-year low of 1.5% and fixed broadband churn at a record 1.3%, while postpaid subscribers rose to 27.6 m (72% of total mobile base).
• Digital Services & Solutions accelerated, with standalone revenues +32% led by OTT offerings, Paycell top-line +33%, and data center & cloud revenues +48% to TRY 470 m on growing contracted volumes.
• CapEx intensity was 18.2% of sales in Q1 and is expected to rise to ~23% in 2024 to fund fiberization (target 41%) and data center expansion, while net debt of TRY 33 bn (0.6x leverage) remains well-covered by a TRY 49 bn cash buffer and planned FX hedge reduction.

Presentation

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Vasilios, your current call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Turkcell's conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the Turkcell first quarter 2024 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 zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Özlem Yardım, Investor Relations and Corporate Finance Director. Ms. Yardım, you may now proceed.

[Özlem Yardım, Investor Relations Director at Turkcell]

Thank you, Vasilios. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Turkcell's first quarter 2024 earnings call. Today, our CEO, Ali Taha Koç, and CFO, Kamil Kalyon, will be delivering a brief presentation covering operational and financial results, which will be followed by a Q&A session. Before we begin, I would like to kindly remind you to review our safe harbor statement available at the end of our presentation. Now, I'm handing the meeting over to Mr. Ali Taha Koç.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Thank you, Özlem. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. At Turkcell, we are celebrating our thirtieth anniversary with great pride, having pioneered numerous milestones from our first call to becoming Türkiye's leading technology provider. In the first quarter of 2024, we are delighted to share our successful results. By taking timely actions, we have delivered robust, digital, double-digit real growth, despite global central banks tightening policies and re-escalating inflation in Türkiye. Our top line grew 12% to TRY 31 billion, with a remarkable 23% increase in EBITDA. These results have been driven by rational price increases since 2021, which enabled mobile ARPU growth to reach 17% and fiber residential ARPU growth to reach 14%.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Supported by lower energy and interconnection expenses, operating leverage extended the EBITDA margin by 3.8 percentage points to 41.4%. Additionally, our commitment to focusing on value-generating postpaid and fiber customer acquisition resulted in 333,000 net additions in the first quarter of the year. Overall, our strong operational performance resulted in a remarkable net profit of TRY 2.6 billion. Our strong first quarter performance enabled us to revise our 2024 revenue growth upwards, which I will elaborate on later. Next slide, please. Let's take a look at our operational performance in the first quarter. Unlike previous quarters, competition in the mobile market was relatively less aggressive in this quarter.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

On the mobile front, we sustained our focus on the postpaid segment, which contributes more value to our financials, resulting in a net increase of 472,000 subscribers. Over the past 12 months, our postpaid base has grown with 1.7 million additions. Our postpaid customer base exceeded 27.6 million, reflecting 72% of the total on a 3-point rise year-over-year. Disconnections from previous years' tourist lines, rising new acquisition price levels, and demand to alternative data solutions were the main factors behind the prepaid net loss of 243,000 subscribers. Our customer-centric and innovative approach contributed to a low churn rate this quarter. The churn rate in the mobile segment was at 1.5%, marking the lowest rate in the past six years.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Driven by sequential price adjustments, upsell efforts, and an increased share of postpaid subscribers in the portfolio, blended mobile ARPU rose by 95% year-over-year and continued to outpace CPI. The base effect from the last year's earthquake contributed to the widening ARPU inflation gap in this quarter. Taking into account inflation adjustments, mobile ARPU recorded 17% yearly growth. Next slide, please, Özlem. In the fixed broadband market, this year started with price adjustment in December, and the market has become more rational compared to the previous year. In the first quarter, we had 48,000 fiber customer additions to our portfolio, following focused investments in expanding our fiber footprint over past years. We are pleased to have added 41,000 IPTV subscribers, reaching the homes of 1.5 million customers.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

TV+ is a premier solution for fiber subscriber retention, enabling us to implement effective price adjustments, thanks to its rich content. With the contributions of TV+, our pure fiber technology, and a rational market, we achieved a fixed churn rate of 1.3%, marking the lowest level since 2007. Widening the gap with CPI, residential fiber ARPU growth continued to rise, achieving a 90% year-on-year growth on a historical basis. Our upsell efforts to higher speed packages and an increase in development contract share within the customer portfolio were the main components of this outstanding performance....Similar to the mobile side, the base effect from last year's OVP contributed to the widening ARPU inflation gap in this quarter. Lastly, we will be prioritizing fiber subscriber net additions over increasing home passes this year.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Therefore, it is reasonable to anticipate lower new home pass figures compared to last year. Next slide. Let's discuss our strategic focus areas, starting with digital services and solutions. Standalone revenue from our digital services and solutions grew an impressive 32% year-on-year, primarily driven by a 29% revenue increase in digital OTT services, which has a 5.5 million paid user base. Among these offerings, our TV services and personal cloud services were particularly instrumental. TV Plus's success is remarkable, as it has been the only platform consistently growing its market share since 2014. According to the ICTA report, the TV Plus market share increased to 17.6%, cementing its second position as of 2023 year end.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

In the first quarter, digital business services generated TRY 2.8 billion in revenue and secured more than 1,200 contracts. We remain committed to maintaining our leading position in the data center market. Combined with our cloud services, revenue, revenues from those grew by 48% to TRY 470 million. Next slide. Paycell, our innovative payment service platform, registered a remarkable quarter, delivering 33% year-on-year growth. Rising interest rates and commission on POS solutions, as well as volume growth, supported the top line. The 57% surge in Pay Later volume was positively affected by a 16% increase in the number of active users. Paycell EBITDA rose 47% year-on-year. The primary factor behind the rise in the EBITDA margin is POS-expense growth lagging behind its revenue increase.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Financing customers' technological needs, Financell's revenues rose 53% on a surging loan portfolio, higher average interest rate, and the contribution of insurance business revenues. The higher cost of funding, stemming from tight monetary policies, pressures Financell's profitability, similar to the banking sector. This was reflected in the net interest margin, which narrowed by 2.4 percentage points this quarter. Since Financell issues loans with relatively shorter maturities, we expect this pressure to decline in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, our cost of risk is at 1.7%, which is lower than first quarter of 2023. Next slide. Lastly, our performance in the international markets. Turkcell's international revenues, which account for 3% of group revenues, rose 2.2% to TRY 815 million.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

BeST revenues rose 24% on a yearly basis in local currency terms, primarily driven by higher data, SMS, and service revenues. The 3.2 percentage point improvement in EBITDA margin was sustained by dedicated cost management. Next slide. I would like to end by sharing our revision for 2024 guidance. Given our first quarter performance, we revise our 2024 revenue growth guidance to low double-digit growth. For EBITDA margin and CapEx intensity, we maintain our guidance. I will now leave the floor to our CFO, Mr. Kamil Kalyon.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Thank you very much, Ali Taha Koç. Now, let's move on to our financial results. Our consolidated revenue increased by 11.8% on a yearly basis to TRY 30.8 billion. The Turkcell Turkey segment was the biggest supporter of the group top line growth, with a 13% rise on a year-on-year basis. This was driven mainly by an expanding subscriber base, particularly on the postpaid side, and strong ARPU growth, thanks to sequential price adjustments with successful upselling efforts. The Techfin segment contributed TRY 460 million to the top line, with the strong performances of Paycell and Financell, which grew 33% and 54% respectively. Next slide, please. In the first quarter of 2024, EBITDA rose 23% on a yearly basis to TRY 12.8 billion, thanks to strong revenue growth.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

EBITDA margin expanded 3.8 percentage points year-on-year. Despite the increase in personal expenses due to the biannual wage rise and the increased funding cost of our financing operation, the group EBITDA, EBITDA margin benefited from a decline in the cost of goods sold, energy expenses, and interconnection expenses as a percentage of revenue. After the electricity prices increased in 2023, which was relatively low compared to inflation, and our corresponding price adjustments in line with the inflation, the proportion of energy expenses to our revenue decreased, thereby supporting the EBITDA margin. Additionally, the continued decline in MTR positively impacted our profitability, a trend expected to persist throughout 2024. Next slide, please. Now let's dive into the net income performance. Thanks to a robust operational performance, EBITDA has contributed TRY 2.4 billion to net income.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

The net FX loss item has pressured net profit by TRY 1.8 billion, due to higher foreign exchange rate change, which is partially offset by mark-to-market of financial derivatives. By the first quarter, the increased weight of non-monetary assets on the balance sheet, the dividend distribution, which decreased retained earnings, and higher inflation indexation resulted in a positive impact of TRY 3.1 billion on net profit marked under the monetary gain and loss item. Despite the positive impact of indexation between statutory reporting and IFRS, deferred tax decreased compared to the previous period. Lower corporate tax also supported the net profit. Next slide, please. Let's take a closer look at our CapEx management. The CapEx to sales ratio for the first quarter of 2024 was 18.2%, with accelerated revenue.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

As we plan to accelerate our data center and renewable energy investments in the upcoming quarters, and given the seasonality of the second half, we expect to reach 23% CapEx intensity for 2024. In this quarter, we primarily focused our investments on mobile and fixed assets. Fixed site investments are primarily driven by tower fiberization. We remain committed to achieving our fiberization target of 41% within this year. The share of data center investments within the total investments for this quarter appears small, yet we expect this proportion to increase over the coming quarters, in line with our target of installing an additional 9.1 MW capacity. Thanks to the modular structure of our data centers, we simply add new modules as demand arises. Next slide, please. Now let's turn our attention to the balance sheet.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

In Q1 2024, our cash position is at TRY 49 billion. Note that a total of TRY 5.2 billion wireless usage tax payments, the second installment of the earthquake donation, and employee bonuses had a negative effect on our cash position. Additionally, we have invested in Eurobonds for effective cash management. Our gross debt was at TRY 98 billion, and we ended this quarter with a net debt position of TRY 33 billion. Due to the decrease in cash position, our net leverage slightly increased to 0.6x. This year, our FX debt service is around $340 million, which we consider quite manageable given our strong cash position.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

We possess an adequate cash reserve to fulfill the 10-year Eurobond redemption in 2025, and are exploring a range of funding alternatives for the reissues. The majority of our cash remains denominated in hard currencies. Excluding FX swaps, 49% of our cash is in US dollars and 24% in euros. Next slide, please. Lastly, let's look into the management of foreign currency risk. In the first quarter of this year, our balance sheet had around $2 billion equivalent in FX financial liabilities. In addition to the $1.6 billion equivalent FX-denominated financial assets, we have a $700 million effective hedging portfolio, the vast majority of which consists of futures, forward, and NDFs.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Since we believe the Turkish lira has entered a period of real appreciation, and with hedging costs in the market having risen significantly over the past couple of years, we plan to reduce our derivative portfolio in the coming periods. As of this quarter, we have a net FX position of $158 million. Due to our plans to reduce our derivatives portfolio, it's fair to expect our net FX position to decrease in the coming periods, while remaining with our neutral FX range of minus and plus $200 million. This concludes our presentation, and we can now open the line for questions. Thank you.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will 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, then 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 comes from the line of Cesar Tiron with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

[Cesar Tiron, Managing Director and Head of CEEMEA Credit Research at Bank of America]

Yes. Hi, good, good evening. Thanks for the call and for the opportunity to ask questions. I have three questions, but they're, they're all easy. The first one, if that's okay. The first one is on the guidance increase on the revenue.

[Cesar Tiron, Managing Director and Head of CEEMEA Credit Research at Bank of America]

... What surprised you the most, in the past, let's say one, two months, so you had to to hike this guidance? That would be the first question. The second question, I would like to understand what exchange rate are you ass- assuming in your budget, for the, for the lira? And let's say if the lira depreciates, less than per your budget, could it be that you will spend a little bit less, less CapEx, so maybe the CapEx intensity, will be less than your, than your guidance?

[Cesar Tiron, Managing Director and Head of CEEMEA Credit Research at Bank of America]

Then the third question, going back to the data centers, can you please, please explain your ambition in this field, and how large you see the capacity will be in the medium term? Thank you so much. Hi, Cesar. Thank you very much for the question. We had a quarter with solid financial and operational performance actually, which has beyond our initial plans. Accordingly, our revenue growth guidance for 2020-2024 increased to low double digit growth, and there's no change in our EBITDA margin and CapEx intensity guidance. However, given the macroeconomic dynamics, projecting inflation will be challenging and the actual figures may vary according to the realized inflation and other factors such as the cyclicality of revenues.

[Cesar Tiron, Managing Director and Head of CEEMEA Credit Research at Bank of America]

Also, the Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet ÅžimÅŸek, announced that the medium-term plan, OVP, is planned to be reviewed at the end of summer. Accordingly, we will be closely following the macroeconomic developments for possible further revision. But to see through that, the first quarter, first couple of months of this quarter is better than our expectations, so that's the reason that we revise our guidance. For the data center business, we are expecting; we already have four big high-tech data centers, and we are planning to build more. Actually, we are looking for a collaboration with big companies to bring the data. Whatever data we have in Turkey, we want to keep it, and we want to be a data hub for this region.

[Cesar Tiron, Managing Director and Head of CEEMEA Credit Research at Bank of America]

So that's the reason that we have a huge ambition about the data center business. So currently we have four, big data centers, and we are adding more, to them. And then in the future, you're gonna see more coming from Turkcell.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

For the second question, normally, our year-end USD FX rate estimation is 33-37.5 TRY. The average rate we are assuming 34 TRY. We believe that we will be in line with our guidance for the full year for the CapEx side. However, in case of a spike in the FX rate, if it realizes within the year, we can postpone or discretionary, we can postpone our discretionary CapEx in order to create a buffer. We are chasing the development in the economic side, but most probably the FX rate will be realized within our estimations this year.

[Cesar Tiron, Managing Director and Head of CEEMEA Credit Research at Bank of America]

Thank you so much. That was very clear. Thank you.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Evgeniya Bystrova with Barclays. Please go ahead.

[Evgeniya Bystrova, Credit Research analyst at Barclays]

Hello, good evening. Can you hear me?

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Yes.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Loud and clear.

[Evgeniya Bystrova, Credit Research analyst at Barclays]

Good. Thank you very much for the presentation, and congrats on the results. It's also great news about the upgraded guidance. I have two quick questions. So my first one, you mentioned that your cash position decreased because of investments in Eurobond. Could you please elaborate on that a little bit? And my second question is related to Ukraine. Obviously, we've seen some headlines in the news about potentially positive developments, but my question would be, what will you do with the profits from this asset sale? Will you-- do you plan to pay additional dividends, or do you plan to use that for CapEx or maybe for your Euro bonds repayment? That's it. Thank you.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Thank you very much. I will give the answer for the first one. The duration of the Eurobond is five years, Turkish sovereign and bank. When we look at, for example, yields in the Eurobonds, there's a high yields when we compare it with the deposit rates, therefore, we prefer to invest Eurobonds in order to benefit from the high yields. For the second question, maybe you can-

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

As you may know, the seizure in April on our Ukrainian assets lifted. It's a positive news. We are now awaiting the necessary permission from our Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. So this is the last step to the conclusion of this deal. Although we don't, we do not have a board decision regarding the proceeds we will obtain from the sale of our assets in Ukraine, we have important investment projections in the coming period, such as data centers, solar energy, and as well as the 5.5G auctions. So we will- we are looking for huge investment projections in the coming period.

[Evgeniya Bystrova, Credit Research analyst at Barclays]

Got you. Thank you. So, do you still see the deal closing during this year?

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Yes, definitely, because we have, there are, there were two big roadblocks. One is just this seizure, and another one is the Antimonopoly Committee. Other than that, everything is clear. So hopefully after this permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine finalized, hopefully in near future, and we are talking about in the periods of months, we are expecting that it's gonna be done in this year.

[Evgeniya Bystrova, Credit Research analyst at Barclays]

... Okay, thank you very much.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question comes from the line of Murat Ignebekcili with HSBC. Please go ahead.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. Can you clarify the calculation of net debt? I think you have changed something over there, because I see that the fixed deposit accounts are no longer included in the net cash calculation. Am I missing something here?

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Murat, we do not have any change in our net debt position, calculation of net debt position. We are using the same method.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

Net cash seems, the total cash is at TRY 48.8 billion, and when you look at-

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Some portion, some portion of cash is categorized in the financial assets. Maybe it might-

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

What? Yes, yes, exactly. So why don't you include those in the cash calculation?

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

We include it. Normally, we have TRY 49.5 million in our hands and TRY 15.1 financial assets. For example, when you look at our leverage, 0.58, these two amounts are included into this calculation.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

Okay. When I look at the footnotes, I see almost TRY 49 million as cash and also TRY 10 million as financial assets separately. That's what I-

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

15 million, Murat.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

Right.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Fifteen, yeah.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

Okay, we can follow up on this later.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Okay.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

Were there any working capital issues in the first quarter? Because there is around almost TRY 12.5 billion EBITDA-

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Mm-hmm.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

Around TRY 7.5 billion CapEx in the quarter.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Yeah, Murat.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

The change in net debt, the net debt increased TRY 6 or 7 billion. So I think there should be some negative impact from working capital, right? Or is it tax payments or anything like that? Can you clarify that, please?

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Normally we had around 9.9 billion TRY cash outflow in this quarter related to working capital side. This was mainly driven by the, as you know, we paid the second installment of the earthquake donation in January. Additionally, we paid personal bonus payments in February, and in February, again, we paid a huge amount of wireless fee tax payments. And we have some payments to our suppliers and decreased trade payables in Q1 2024, compared to the first quarter of the last year. We are closely following our net working capital side, and I think we will recover, especially collection of the wireless fee tax payment from our clients. Our net working capital structure will be better in the coming periods.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

Okay, thank you very much. And finally, when you look at the financial expenses during a quarter of very limited FX activity or limited FX depreciation, in the financial expense side, I see around more than TRY 5 billion of FX losses. Could you elaborate on that, please?

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Yes. Normally, as you said, I think, around 6% or 7% depreciation in the FX rate realized in Q1. But as you know, along with sequential rate hikes from the CBT side, short-term rates and hedging costs increased very significantly. Therefore, this was the main driver behind the increase of our FX loss and the financial expenses. In addition to, you know, the credit rates are also increased very much before the election cycle, you remember. Therefore, these three effects affected our FX position or FX loss side negatively.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

So, is it safe to assume that given that the interest rates in the market have already settled at some level, albeit very high, we should not see further significant FX losses in the coming months?

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

The...

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

The price is already mark to market.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Yes. As mentioned, in my speech, our expectation in the FX side, we are not expecting a very high increases in the FX side. Therefore, we are most probably in order to decrease our hedging costs, we would like to make a short position, might be in the coming periods, in order to reduce our financial costs, because our estimation regarding the FX rates, I think it will go for a short or mid-term side, we are not make expecting any FX increases in this year. Therefore, most probably we will be opening a short position in our net FX position.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

... Thank you, that's very clear. Finally, about the operations. When you look at a typical postpaid client, if he is to renew his contract, what is the like-for-like growth in the invoice if one is to renew his contract compared to last year? So a new contract renewal price is up how much on a year-on-year basis?

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Normally, as, as we said, our revenues grew by around 13% in Turkcell, Türkiye side, first quarter side. And we have a very, how can I say? Our ARPU rates are increasing very well when we compare it to the last period. It's around TRY 80, 17% we have ARPU rate hike. And when we look at, for example, starting from 2021, we had, we made a lot of price increases and more than 100% increase in prices within the last 20 months, we can easily say that. Because we successfully implement our inflation pricing policy.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Invoice to invoice, you can talk about 100%. More than 100%, invoice to invoice.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

Invoice. Yeah. So a typical Platinum tariff is up 100% in nominal terms compared to same period last year?

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Might be.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Might be. We're talking about the blended ones, but, we are not, we are not talking about the, the markets or platinum. We are just talking about the blended.

['Murat İğnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC]

So yes, when the inflation rate hopefully declines in the coming quarters, in real terms, this will turn into a much larger increase. Thank you.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Cemal DemirtaÅŸ with Ata Invest. Please, go ahead.

[Cemal DemirtaÅŸ, Head of Research at Ata Invest]

Thank you for the presentation, and congratulations for very good results. My first question is about your strategic focus areas. I see a little bit momentum in both the tech and digital services revenue side. Could we expect this trend to continue going forward? Because in the previous years there was a little bit slower growth, but I see higher momentum. Is it sustainable? This is my first question. The second question is: How do you see the consumer sentiments in your fronts? Do you see any changes in the consumer behavior and could you give us some color on the roaming side? What are your expectations on that side? Thank you. And the last question is, again, you know, it has been asked about the net debt.

[Cemal DemirtaÅŸ, Head of Research at Ata Invest]

What was the amount of wireless prepaid in the first quarter? Thank you.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Again, let me start with the strategy focus areas. I just want to say that our momentum is going to keep on going till the end of the year, and then most probably into the next year as well. So tech and DSS side is going to grow. And for example, Paycell saw a quarter with double-digit real growth performance. And then also meanwhile financial also supported the technical segment growth as well in the first quarter of 2024. And also our digital business services will grow, and with the digitization of all the companies as well as the public sector, we're expecting that growth and the momentum is going to continue.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

So everybody wants to be digital, and then as at the end of the day, Turkcell is the leading integrator and leading technology firm in Türkiye. So we will be happy to digitalize and just support them in their businesses. So we are expecting, especially the data center business as well as the cloud businesses, is going to grow faster than we expect. So hopefully, we are going to see this momentum keep on going.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Cemal, we paid TRY 1.7 billion wireless tax payment in February. As you know, we are paying in advance to government side, and we are collecting this from our customers within the year.

[Cemal DemirtaÅŸ, Head of Research at Ata Invest]

Thank you.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

You're welcome.

[Cemal DemirtaÅŸ, Head of Research at Ata Invest]

The consumer trends at roaming side?

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

So we are closely following that part as well. But for us, what we are doing is we are just doing some new campaigns about the smart contracts. So we are just letting all our users to see if their tariff is over or not, and then we just make that service free of charge. So we are trying to improve our Net Promoter Score as well. So we are seeing that it is kind of easy, technologically easy, as well, especially with the electronic SIM, eSIM. But we are closely following the trends and then we are in order to convince people to use our eSIM or just our subscriber domain. So we will closely following it up.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

But to say the truth, I will tell you more when we have more data, especially during this tourist season, especially the summer, we're going to see the numbers. Because this is going to be the first time that we are going to see lots of tourism with electronic SIM eSIM. So that's the reason that we're going to see the impact, both positive or negative, and with the more data, I will talk more better at the end of the summer.

[Cemal DemirtaÅŸ, Head of Research at Ata Invest]

Thank you.

[Operator]

... As a final reminder, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question comes from the line of Ece Mandacı with Unlu Securities. Please go ahead.

[Ece Mandacı, Senior Euity Analyst at Unlu Securities]

Thank you very much for the presentation, and congratulations on your strong guidance. So, my question is about the corporate revenues. I see, when I look at the details, I see a 3% decline in your corporate revenues. The digital business solution revenues is flat, but apart from it, I'm noticing some decline. Is this just for the first quarter? Do you expect, as I can understand, you are expecting some growth over there going forward, but what was specifically the reason for this decline in the first quarter? Thank you.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

So, let me talk about the DBS and then the revenues growth for this quarter. Especially our digital business service revenues remained flat in first quarter of 2024. It's mainly due to the fewer one-off large budget projects and hardware sales compared to last year. Actually, additionally, revenues from public sector clients dropped from 41% Q1 of last year to 24% this quarter. Then also it indicates a reality and indicating a slowdown in public sector sales, mainly due to the saving measures in the public. At this point, we are compensating for the slowdown with our value-added and the recurring services and like data centre and cloud businesses. So hopefully, we are just going to compensate this slowdown effect from the public sector.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Normally, we do not have any problem for the recurring service in the corporate side. As Ali Taha mentioned, we have three significant projects in the last quarter of 2023. Therefore, within the year, most probably we do not. We will close or we will realize a real growth in the corporate side also.

[Ece Mandacı, Senior Euity Analyst at Unlu Securities]

Margin-wise, was this the reason, one of the reasons why you had a, I think, a better margin maybe? Could there be, with the expected increase, a margin dilution effect in the quarters ahead?

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Are you asking from the consumer side or from the corporate side?

[Ece Mandacı, Senior Euity Analyst at Unlu Securities]

Corporate side, I mean.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

In the corporate side, from the recurring side, for the recurring, the income coming from the tariffs, we do not have any dilution, regarding the margin side. We are a little bit sensitive from the project perspective because, this year would be a little bit, hard for the corporations and state, establishments, for the budget, purposes. Therefore, we do not want to enter risky, projects in this year. Therefore, we are selecting a more profitable and, no any, doubtful receivable, risk projects, within this year. Therefore, we do not, wait or expect a margin dilution, in the corporate side also. But as you know, the, terminal side or the, how can I say? Hardware side is a little bit, less, profitable, issues.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

But, we are very good at, for example, balancing this issue, and we do not want to dilute our EBITDA margin. And, we are very careful about the basket which we, how can I say? Prepare for these projects.

[Ece Mandacı, Senior Euity Analyst at Unlu Securities]

Thank you.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Turkcell Management for any closing comments. Thank you.

[Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell]

Thank you very much for the time, and I will be happy to present you our Q1 great results. Hopefully, we are gonna have the similar and then better results in the Q2. Hope to see you next time. Thank you.

[Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell]

Thank you very much. Hope to see you.

[Özlem Yardım, Investor Relations Director at Turkcell]

Thank you for joining. Thank you.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a pleasant evening.

Participants

Analysts

• 'Murat Ä°ÄŸnebekçili', Head of Equity Desk & Fund Manager at HSBC
• Ali Taha Koç, CEO at Turkcell
• Cemal DemirtaÅŸ, Head of Research at Ata Invest
• Cesar Tiron, Managing Director and Head of CEEMEA Credit Research at Bank of America
• Ece Mandacı, Senior Euity Analyst at Unlu Securities
• Evgeniya Bystrova, Credit Research analyst at Barclays
• Kamil Kalyon, CFO at Turkcell
• Özlem Yardım, Investor Relations Director at Turkcell