Orange looks for GPRS launch this year after achieving 1st opg profit in 2000

LONDON (AFX) - Orange SA said it intends to roll out GPRS and other data services this year, having made the transition to an operating profit after integrating the UK-based mobile group with France Telecom SA's cellular operations.	    The company claimed its proportional customer base - with joint venture subscriber numbers included according to the size of Orange's shareholding - rose 68 pct to 30.5 mln in 2000. It said its operating profit in the year ended Dec 31, 2000, was 383 mln eur, against a loss of 111 mln a year earlier.	    The figures are pro forma, since the group as it currently is was formed only in May last year, when France Telecom bought Orange from Vodafone Group PLC.	    Orange had come under Vodafone's wing after the larger UK group bought Mannesmann AG following a six-month struggle. This was triggered by Mannesmann's move into the UK market, by taking over Orange itself in mid-1999.	    On overall sales of 12.06 bln eur, up 59 pct from 7.59 bln a year earlier, Orange said it made a pretax loss before goodwill amortisation and minority interests of 409 mln eur, compared with a loss of 630 mln the year before.	    EBITDA for the full year was 1.765 bln eur, almost double the 919 mln recorded in 1999.	    In France, the EBITDA margin increased to 31 pct from 25 pct with a positive EBITDA up 62 pct to 1.5 bln eur on turnover up 40 pct to 5.7 bln eur. Customer numbers grew 40 pct to 14.3 mln.	    In the UK, the EBITDA margin increased to 23 pct from 20 pct with a positive EBITDA up nearly 100 pct to 759 mln eur excluding group and integration costs, on turnover up 76 pct to 4.2 bln eur. Customer numbers almost doubled to about 10 mln users.	    In the rest of the world, turnover grew 86 pct to 2.2 bln eur and there was strong growth in positive EBITDA in Belgium, Romania and Slovakia. However, increasing start-up losses in Switzerland and the Netherlands saw EBITDA losses grow to 443 mln eur from 384 mln.	    On a net basis, the loss was 1.321 bln eur, a slight narrowing from the 1.322 bln loss reported the previous year, making a loss per share of 28 cents, again unchanged year on year.	    Net debt was 5.038 bln eur, the company said, while capex grew about 50 pct to 3.3 bln eur on higher network spending to support usage and customer growth.	    On top of that, Orange won eight third-generation UMTS licencGerman, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and Portugal.	    Since year-end, Orange said, a further licence has been won in Belgium. Further licences are expected in France, Denmark and Romania.	    The company said it will start seeing synergies from its recreation in the current year, with 390 mln eur of the 400 mln target already identified, putting the group on target for 800 mln eur of savings by 2003.	    In operational terms, Orange said it is on track to make 25 pct of its revenues from data by 2005, a target identical to that of Vodafone, and assisted by an 86 pct rise in SMS traffic in 2000. SMS revenue, the group said, made up 7.5 pct of overall revenue in the UK, the strongest market, while the French business saw SMS traffic rise fivefold to 236 mln messages in the fourth quarter, albeit from a much lower base.	    If Orange is to achieve its data revenue target, it will have to come as a result of GPRS packet data services, which the company said it expects to roll out in many territories this year, and by the summer in the UK and France.	    The launch handsets will be provided by Motorola Inc, Orange said, with 10-15 models in total available by year-end.	    In per-user terms, France provided the most revenue per user, at 596 eur from each of its 7.425 mln contract customers and 183 eur apiece from its 6.886 mln prepaid users.	    The UK was less lucrative, since a higher proportion of customers use prepay services. The 3.077 mln contract customers on average produced 525 eur a year, while the average revenue from each of the 6.757 mln prepaid customers was 126 eur.	    While churn in France was 22.2 pct, and 26 pct among contract customers, UK churn was 9.2 pct - again with a higher proportion, 23.8 pct, of contract customers. 

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