Cellcom's loss expanded to NIS 107 million in 2019 - 67% increase

Cellcom's loss expanded to NIS 107 million in 2019 - a 67% increase in loss compared to 2018. In the fourth quarter of 2019, Cellcom lost NIS 54 million. The company warns about the effects of the Corona virus on its business, and reports that as the crisis continues, the company's business will be adversely affected - particularly in the areas of roaming services and end-of-life equipment sales.
Part of the loss in 2019 (NIS 6 million) was due to a NIS 45 million grant for the provision of 450 employees, and another was due to accounting changes. In the first quarter of 2020, Cellcom (+ 1.87% 840.3) will record losses on its portfolio as a result of the sharp declines in capital markets in Israel and worldwide.
The company manages to maintain stability in its annual revenues - NIS 3.7 billion, almost unchanged from 2018.
The cellular sector pulled revenues down, by almost 2%. The company saw a decrease of 100,000 subscribers in 2019 - down 3.8% - but this is due to the deletion of some 153,000 subscribers due to a change in the method of counting cellular subscribers. By eliminating this deletion, Cellcom experienced an increase of 46,000 subscribers in 2019.
Its abandonment rate, which grew to 48.8% - 13% higher than in 2018. This means that almost half of Cellcom's customers abandoned it during 2019. The company did succeed in recruiting new customers, which made up for the abandonment, but recruiting new customers involves high costs and is usually done for a lower monthly fee.