VF Ukraine

Vodafone Ukraine (VFU), Ukraine’s second largest mobile operator, held a conference call to discuss its 2023 results published on Apr. 30. The company confirmed its intention to continue servicing its debt as scheduled, including repaying a $400m Eurobond maturing on Feb. 11, 2025, provided that national F/X regulations make it possible. VFU reported its current liquidity balance at $283m, up from $228m as of end-2023 and 85% of the total held in hard currency in Ukraine. The company expects to accumulate $400m of cash by end-January 2025, in time for the bond maturity, by relying on its solid cash generation and rescheduling payments to certain vendors under long-term supply contracts. At the same time, if the existing restrictions on external debt repayments from accounts in Ukraine remain in place by early 2025 and/or the company fails to secure an individual permit from the NBU for such payments, it will explore options to refinance the bond with IFI loans or attract support from its parent. The latter possibility hinges on an expected NBU decision to allow companies to repatriate “new” dividends, in which case VFU would be able to pay out its 2023 NI ($139m) to the parent and subsequently use it to repurchase/redeem the bond.

Vodafone Ukraine (VFU), Ukraine’s second largest mobile operator, reported 2023 revenue of $591m (-3.5% y-o-y), EBITDA of $347m (-0.4%), and net income of $139m (+4.1x), for EBITDA and net margins of 58.7% (+1.8pp y-o-y) and 23.5% (+17.9pp). Full-year CAPEX jumped by 40% y-o-y to $155m. VFU booked a 2023 ARPU of UAH 107.2 ($2.8), up 18% y-o-y in UAH and up 4.7% y-o-y in USD terms. Its customer base rose by 3.2% y-o-y to 15.9 million subscribers.