Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) has consolidated its third quarter financial statements with those of newly acquired Golan Telecom on the basis of one month only. Cellcom's third quarter revenue was NIS 956 million, 3% more than in the corresponding quarter of 2019. In the previous quarter, revenue was NIS 856 million.
Cellcom posted a net loss of NIS 37 million in the third quarter, which compares with losses of NIS 2 million in the corresponding quarter and NIS 46 million in the previous quarter, a quarter that was heavily impacted by the first lockdown in Israel.
Revenue from mobile services totaled NIS 414 million, more than in the previous quarter, when revenue in this segment was NIS 385 million, but less than in the corresponding quarter of 2019, when it totaled NIS 439 million. The decline is attributed to the absence of both incoming and outgoing tourism, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cellcom's fixed-line services, which include television, Internet, and services to business, brought in revenue of NIS 327 million in the third quarter, more than in the corresponding quarter, when revenue in this segment was NIS 311 million, but less than in the previous quarter, when it totaled NIS 339 million.
The merged company made an operating loss of NIS 6 million, which compares with an operating profit of NIS 36 million in the corresponding quarter and an operating loss of NIS 22 million in the previous quarter.
The company reports that the partial consolidation with the results of Golan Telecom contributed NIS 5 million to the net profit line, even though the acquisition deal was closed only at the end of August 2020.
Cellcom also reports 6,000 additional subscribers to its Cellcom TV service in comparison with the previous quarter, and for the first time publishes the number of its fiber-optic subscribers, which stands at 80,000, which it says is 15% more than in the previous quarter.
Cellcom CEO Avi Gabbay said, "In the third quarter we continued to deal with the effect of the coronavirus crisis which continued to hurt the company's results. We are acting to continue to adapt our costs structure and are focused on providing excellent service to our customers. We are very proud of the way that the company has adjusted to the coronavirus crisis, something that is manifest in, among other things, the growth in sales of end-user equipment despite the fact that for part of the period our stores were closed.
"We continue to grow in numbers of television subscribers, and we now have 80,000 active fiber-optic subscribers, out of 500,000 households in buildings connected to the network."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 23, 2020