1. Share buy-back
By July 20, the company acquired 1.73 mln. of its own shares representing 0.54% of registered capital at an average price of CZK 383.3 CZK/share. Completion of 2% tranche is expected in November, latest in December, which is a bit later than previously expected. The company expects to accelerate the buy-back in coming months. The management also ruled out the possibility of another tranche of the buy-back to be initiated this year. Also, it does not consider any debt financing of the buy-back for the moment thanks to TEFO2’s strong balance sheet. /Neutral, we think another tranche could be initiated again next year. The accelerating acquisition of TEFO2’s shares could support the stock in coming months/
2. MTR cut impact
The CTU telecom has cut mobile termination rates (MTR - a rate operators charge to each other for terminating calls in their networks) from 1.08 CZK/min to 0.55 CZK/min as of July 1. This should have a direct negative impact on top line, but should be neutral on OIBDA level as well as bottom line. The company does not expect tougher competitive environment as a result of the MTR cut. /Neutral/
3. OIBDA margin guidance
The management reiterated its rather general guidance of limited margin erosion yoy in 2012. The adjusted OIBDA margin reached 43.5% last year while it has reached 40.5% year-to-date. For the full year TEF CR expects it to stay above 40% for sure. It expects further efficiencies in 2H12, especially on IT. Also stronger ICT revenues should help the margin recover in 2H12. /Neutral, the margin decline in 1H12 was more significant compared to our expectations. Similar to 2011, we expect better performance in 2H12/
Overall, nothing major said on the call. We expect the ongoing share buy-back to support the stock in coming weeks.