Norway's Telenor slightly lags earnings forecast, takes $50 million hit in Malaysia

(Reuters) -Norwegian telecom operator Telenor on Wednesday posted quarterly earnings slightly below market expectations and flagged a negative adjustment of 500 million Norwegian crowns ($49.8 million) related to rising 5G costs in Malaysia. Telenor's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 5.4% organically to 9.54 billion crowns in the third quarter, while analysts polled by it had expected 9.60 billion crowns on average. Shares in the company fell around 3% in early Oslo trading. Overall, the results were in line or a touch lower than the market consensus, with a solid performance in Telenor's core Nordic markets offsetting some concerns in Asia. In Asia, Telenor saw organic EBITDA growth of 4.1%, partially helped by growth in Bangladesh's Grameenphone in which the Norwegian group owns a majority. Grameenphone recorded quarterly revenue growth after four consecutive quarters of declining performance following the political turmoil that took place in Bangladesh last year. "Still, consumers in Bangladesh continue to be highly prudent in the wake of last year's macro-economic setback," CEO Benedicte Schilbred Fasmer said in the earnings statement. The Norwegian group has previously said that any recovery in Bangladesh was unlikely to gain momentum before next year. Meanwhile, 5G-related costs are increasing in Malaysia, Schilbred Fasmer said. Telenor is the top shareholder in the country's largest mobile network operator CelcomDigi together with Axiata, with a 33.1% stake each. "Based on the latest public information, we make a 0.5 billion crown negative adjustment to our share of results from CelcomDigi this quarter related to its associated 5G network company in Malaysia," the CEO said. Telenor also specified its forecasts for 2025, saying it expected 5-6% organic growth in adjusted EBITDA for the whole group and 8-9% growth in the Nordics. It also sees 2-3% organic growth in Nordic service revenues. ($1 = 10.0431 Norwegian crowns) (Reporting by Elviira Luoma in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)

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