Q3 2025 VEON Ltd Earnings Call
Thank you for joining us today for VEON Ltd's Q3 2025 results for the period ending September 30, 2025.
My name is Anand Ramachandran, Chief Corporate Development Officer for Beyond.
Allow me to introduce Athena Management in the room today.
Next to me is Mr. K, also known as Zulu, a Group CEO.
And next to him, Mr. Burak Kerr, Group CFO.
Today's presentation, as usual, will begin with the key highlights and business updates from Khan, followed by a discussion of the financial results from Burak. We will then open the line for Q&A.
Before we begin, please note that today's presentation may include forward-looking statements, which involve certain risks and uncertainties.
These statements relate to the company's anticipated performance 2025 guidance, market development, operational and network investments, and the company's ability to realize its targets and initiatives.
Our actual results may differ materially due to risks detailed in our Annual Report on Form 20-F and other filings with the SEC.
The earnings release and presentation, including reconciliations of non-IFRS measures, are all available on our Investor Relations website.
With that, let me hand it over to K.
Thank you, Anand. Good morning, good afternoon, and welcome to everyone.
Let me begin with a remarkable milestone.
In September, our monthly digital service users surpassed.
Monthly telecom SIM card users for the first time.
A defining moment in our journey as a true digital operator.
This signals the scale of the opportunity ahead of us and the extraordinary growth still to come.
Across our footprints, more than half a billion people.
And we see a rising digital adoption expanding connectivity, and powerful demographic momentum.
These markets are not just large; they are accelerating, underpinned by innovation and low base effects that create multiple vectors of sustained growth.
At the heart of this opportunity is our digital operator model, uniquely positioned to capture and drive this transformation.
By combining connectivity, digital platforms, and financial inclusion, we are unlocking sustainable growth and enduring value creation for customers, communities, governments, and shareholders alike.
And now, let's start the key messages from our Q3 results.
I am pleased that we have delivered another strong quarter.
Starting with our financial performance.
Our revenues grew 7.5% year-on-year in U.S. dollar terms.
US dollar adjusted EBITDA increased by 19.7% year on year.
This is yet another Billion Dollar Plus Revenue quarter and the half a billion dollar plus AA quarter.
On the back of this performance, we are raising our fiscal year 2025 EBTA outlook.
We now expect 16% to 18% ABTA growth for the year in local currency terms, up from 14% to 16% earlier.
Second, we are driving exceptional momentum in expanding our Digital Services portfolio.
Direct digital revenues grew 63% in U.S. dollar terms and now contribute 17.8% of our total group revenues.
Our AI 1440 strategy is becoming central to our operations, with ongoing work on large language models and increasing integration into agentic AI-powered customer-facing solutions.
We are delivering localized, multilingual features at scale through our super app platforms.
Third, we continue to make good progress in executing our asset-like strategy.
We have completed the sale of our Crisan operations this quarter, further streamlining our portfolio and focusing on core growth markets.
Our global framework agreement with Starling aims to bring direct-to-sales satellite connectivity to all of Beyond's operating markets, ensuring resilient connectivity even in hard-to-reach areas.
To launch services in Kazakhstan, as we planned the test activities over the next couple of months.
And finally, we continue to deliver for our shareholders.
The landmark listing of Kfar on NASDAQ unlocked significant value, with a current market valuation of $2.8 billion compared to $1.25 billion of equity, which is 2.3 times its book value.
We retain an 89.6% stake in Kear, which is worth $2.5 billion at KF Star's current market price.
We are pleased that uncertainty regarding Beyond is being mitigated, reflecting stronger liquidity and a more resilient balance sheet.
And finally, our board has approved another $100 million share and/or bond repurchase program.
a clear demonstration of our confidence in our growth prospects and our continued commitment to deliver value to all our investors.
Let's move to Q3 key financial metrics.
Our performance for the quarter.
The recommended infrastructure segment revenues on a like-for-like basis that adjusts for TNS Plus.
This divestment grew 3.5% versus the reported 0.5% number that you see on this page.
This reflects the impact of our differentiated network products and services in continuing to drive R2 and subscriber engagement while reducing churn.
Our direct digital revenues were up 63% and represent 17.8% of total group revenue.
On profitability, our AA margin continues to grow year-to-date. Margins have expanded by 320 basis points year-on-year and reflect both scale efficiencies and cost discipline.
Last 12 months, EPS stands at $8.89, up 60.2% year on year.
However, the reported EPS for Q3 alone was a loss of $1.84 per share, as we recorded two non-cash charges totaling $259 million.
First, there was a charge of $162 million related to the Spark sponsor shares in connection with the KF Star listing, which is treated as share-based compensation according to IPS and has been recognized in the third quarter.
Second was the charge of $97 million for the sale of our crisis on business, triggering cumulative currency translation adjustments.
For the avoidance of doubt.
Q3 results have contributed $766 million to our shareholders' equity.
I want to emphasize that these non-cash charges have no impact on Vons' underlying operational performance, cash generation, or financial guidance, which remains firmly supported by our strong organic growth and margin expansion across our key markets.
Moving on over the last 12 months, CapEx intensity, excluding Ukraine, was 17.7%, and it is in line with our guidance.
Next steps, excluding leases, stood at $1.72 billion as of September.
The improvement in leverage to 1.13 times reflects our operational and financial discipline, as well as the success of our asset life strategy.
Our last 12 months: Equity, F cash. Cash flow reached $584 million.
Finally, we ended the quarter with a cash balance of $1.67 million, including $653 million at the headquarters level.
Let's look at our growth trajectory, and I will highlight 3 key points.
First.
When I look at a like-for-like basis, which adjusts for the consolidation of TNS, plus the book loan acquisition and the sale of DODAR and the Kurdistan business.
Our revenues would have grown 10% in U.S. dollars versus the reported 7.5%.
Our EBITDA rose 19.7% in US dollars, underscoring the resilience of our strategy and the quality of execution.
Finally, I am pleased that our momentum continues to exceed inflation and nominal GDP growth.
Showcasing our ability to implement fair pricing while capturing a greater share of the world's customers.
Let me dive into our digital revenue performance. Starting last quarter, we began breaking out the components of our digital service revenues to provide you with greater transparency into the growth and potential of our digital businesses.
Let me make three points here.
First Financial Services are the largest components, accounting for 54% of total digital revenues, which are growing 33% year on year.
Second growth is pretty broad-based with solid contribution.
Billing enterprise and premium digital brand segments.
Sir.
Our sustainable cost advantages are how our low customer acquisition costs and optimized distribution model are driving this growth.
These enable us to scale profitably and maintain strong unit economies.
Let's look into our progress with regard to multiplayer, user multiplayer, user counts, and customers that use at least one digital service, in addition to our voice and data connectivity services.
Multiplay is a key feature of our digital operator strategy and growth story.
4G enables multiplayer gaming. Increasing 4G adoption is a key growth driver.
And it is, this 4g.
The multiplayer segment drives growth through stronger customer engagement.
Higher data consumption, more frequent usage of voice services, improved retention, and artwork expansion.
Our multiplayer customers generate 3.8 times the RPO of a voice-only subscriber.
Encouragingly, this ratio continues to sustain, even as multiplayer adoption expands as a proportion of our overall subscriber base.
In the third quarter.
55.4% of our total customer revenues were generated by multiplayer customers, and this segment grew revenue-wise by 23% year-on-year.
For this.
We have delivered strong double-digit revenue growth across all of our markets.
Apart from Bangladesh.
While the headline Revenue growth for Bolin kazakistan shows a single digit revenues on a like for like basis adjusting for TNS. Plus b, consolidation was up 23.3%
In Bangladesh, we are encouraged that the revenue returned to year-on-year growth for the first time in 14 months in September 2025.
Our profitability trends across markets were strong as well.
Headline numbers for Bolin Kazakhstan, and Bolin is Vistana, were impacted by tax effects. However, after adjusting for these organic profitability trends, our results remain strong.
Remain very strong.
Finally, please note that our consolidated financial results for Ukraine include full consolidation of Ukraine Tower Company (UTC), whereas the standalone disclosures work for KGL Group.
That are also released this morning excludes UCT.
We can take specific questions and discuss market-specific issues during the Q&A session.
Let me now turn to the financial services business. This is a success story in Pakistan.
This business is the largest component of our financial services business, which I have highlighted earlier.
This quarter, we completed the operational separation of just cash.
Just Cash will continue to provide technology and services to MMBl.
This portfolio.
The business continues to deliver strong growth, as you see on this page.
Gross transaction value for the quarter rose 40% year-on-year, representing 13% of Pakistan's gross domestic product on a last 12-month basis.
This was driven by a 48% increase in total transactions and a 38% increase in transactions per user.
Just Cash, with its over 700,000 merchant base, processes over 80% of all Rust Payments value under the Prime Minister's Cashless Society initiative.
Loan originations expanded sharply this quarter, with the daily average number of digital loans rising by nearly 26%.
the average of 153,000 microloans dispersed on a single day in Q3.
More recently, Jazz Cash achieved a major milestone with its highest ever single-day disbursement of 1.1 billion Pakistani Rupees through 200,000 loans.
We are extremely proud of what Just Cash has achieved.
With its trusted brand, deep market reach, and a growing ecosystem, Jazz Cash is leading Pakistan's rapid transition to a cashless economy and is positioned to unlock meaningful long-term value for VEON.
Let us now have a closer look at the continued momentum of our digital ecosystem.
We continue to see strong and broad-based growth across platforms, with a total monthly active users growing to 143.3 million, up 39% year-on-year.
Our digital-only user base has more than doubled to 50 million and now represents nearly 35% of our total digital users.
As I highlighted earlier, digital engagement exceeded mobile engagement for the first time in September—an important milestone that highlights how our platforms are becoming the primary customer interface.
and unlocking new opportunities for cross-sell advertising and digital services, monetization.
Over the past 12 months.
Transaction values grew 50% to reach $48.8 billion throughout our financial services platforms.
Let's look in a more detailed outlook at our digital portfolio.
And we focus on consumer-centric platforms on this page.
Our financial services segment has increased by 25% to reach 40 million users across all platforms.
I highlighted just cash earlier.
In Kazakhstan, people are scaling their roles as the financial layer of our digital ecosystem in their countries.
Our entertainment platforms delivered a strong quarter as well.
Tamasha in Pakistan and toffee in Bangladesh achieved record levels of engagement, fueled by the excitement of Asia Cup cricket tournaments.
This also drew up a sharp uptick in advertising demand.
In Ukraine, Kfar TVs' revised partnership has elevated direct customer engagement to an entirely new level.
Meanwhile, BTV in Kazakhstan and Keno in Pakistan continued to gain solid traction, reinforcing the growing strength of our Regional Entertainment portfolio.
Our super apps continue to scale, positioned as a one-stop digital hub. These platforms are seamlessly integrating essential services, from healthcare to entertainment, and driving deeper customer engagement across our footprint.
Oak loans, right? The hailing service reached 3.6 million users and recorded strong growth in active riders, trip volumes, and digital engagement in Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Our premium digital brands spanning the life cycle, digital identity, productivity, and tools have grown to 3.3 million users.
Experiences.
Let's move to our enterprise platforms.
These platforms are transforming from internal enablers to market-facing technology leaders, driving the next generation of augmented intelligence and innovation.
This opens up new revenue pools and strengthens our position as next-generation digital operators.
Costco TF. Start Tech Garage and Big Cloud are winning new contracts, delivering augmented intelligence solutions, cloud services, and data center solutions to corporate and government clients. We are expanding our presence in fast-growing enterprise technology markets.
Software developers and data scientists are executing at scale to build commercialized next-generation digital products.
Our advertising technology business, VEON, is scaling rapidly.
Powered by augmented intelligence and Big Data.
It reaches over 70 million screens across our footprint, delivering measurable return on investment for advertisers.
Built on our own AI and data infrastructure, the platform provides a 360-degree advertising ecosystem.
Enabling precise audience targeting, real-time optimization, and creating a powerful new monetization layer across our digital portfolio.
Let's turn now to how we are embedding.
Across our ecosystem.
We call it AI 1440: augmented intelligence for every single minute in a day.
In Kazakhstan, our Kaz LM is now alive in four languages: Kazakh, Turkish, English, and Russian.
Powering agentic features across multiple platforms.
In Ukraine, KF Startech is collaborating with the Ministry of Digital Transformation to develop the country's first sovereign Ukrainian language model. This is a landmark step in building national AI capabilities.
We will extend this capability to i-Spec, Bangla, and Urdu, and deepen market-specific intelligence.
Across our applications, AI is becoming truly a game-changer and reshaping customer engagement from self-service to entertainment and education.
In entertainment, AI recommendation engines have now reached nearly 35 million monthly active users across Tamasha Kenaum, Kfar TV, written and Hitter.
On Tamasha, AI already drives over one-third of all live TV sessions.
And nearly 60% of video-on-demand plays.
Its AI news channel has now become the third most-watched channel on the platform.
The news channel is sometimes having male or female news anchors that present the news on live TV.
In Customer Care, our simosa AI chat assistant now autonomously manages customer journeys for nearly 1 million users every month.
Our customized personal growth solutions are seeing strong adoption with our consumer audience.
Janda, an AI tutor, engages 17,000 monthly users, while Rice AI tools processed over 16,000 requests, helping students write their CVs.
We are also innovating with AI for Enterprise. Cross Code successfully launched Aventa AI, an enterprise-grade AI-native platform designed to scale agentic workflows across HR, finance, and procurement functions.
In summary.
Augmented intelligence is now a living layer in our ecosystem.
Delivering measurable impact for us across all our markets.
I will now hand over to Brock, who will take you through the financials in more detail.
Thank you, call.
Looking at group revenues, we delivered total revenue of 1.115 billion US dollars in the third quarter representing a growth of 7 and a half percent in US dollar terms.
On a light-for-light basis, that adjusts for this, our revenues grew 10%.
Underscoring the continued momentum across our operating markets.
Direct digital revenues grew 63% year-on-year to reach $198 million.
Digital services now account for 17.8% of total revenue.
Up from 11% a year ago.
Turning the page to profitability, EBITDA for the quarter was $524 million, representing growth of 19.7%.
The EVA margin stood at 47% for the quarter, up 400 basis points year-on-year, and was supported by operating leverage and disciplined cost management across all markets.
We note that our digital services now account for 17.8% of group revenue.
While digital margins are structurally lower, their significantly lower capex intensity ensures comparable cash conversion relative to Telecom services.
As our revenue mix continues to shift in this direction, we remain focused on sustaining EBITDA growth at scale while enhancing group-wide capital efficiency and long-term free cash flow generally.
Turning now to the balance sheet.
We ended the quarter with $1.67 billion in cash and deposits, of which $653 million is held at headquarters.
Less dividends are streamed from operating companies. During the quarter, total dividends amounted to $96 million and $285 million for the year to date.
Growth steps to that $4.86 billion UPS, slightly from June.
And reflected the completion of our $200 million bond issuance during the quarter.
Approximately half of our external debt is now held at the operating company level, providing a natural currency hedge.
Next Step was
$3.48 billion. While net debt, excluding leases, improved to $1.73 billion, bringing leverage down to 1.13 times a day.
Let me now hand the call back to Come.
Thank you, Brock. Let me conclude with our outlook for the year. Despite ongoing macro and geopolitical challenges, we are continuously executing strongly across all markets. We are revising our AA outlook for the full year and now expect a beta growth of 16% to 18% in local currency terms for the full year.
We are maintaining our revenue guidance of 13% to 15% growth in local currency terms.
In U.S. dollar terms, we expect this to translate to 7% to 8% revenue growth.
And 10% to 11% BTA growth for the full year, assuming no significant fluctuations in exchange rates from current levels.
Our capital intensity, excluding Ukraine, remains in the 7% to 19% range.
These targets are based on a blended weighted average inflation rate of 8.2%.
In closing, we are pleased with our business momentum.
Looking ahead, we remain confident in Vance's trajectory and the opportunities before us.
As I highlighted earlier, the board has approved another $100 million share and bond repurchase program.
Reinforcing Beyond's confidence in long-term value creation.
Beyond is well positioned to sustain growth and long-term value creation for our shareholders, customers, and communities. We serve.
Thank you for your attention and support. Now, we can open the line for Q&A.
Thank you.
At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please click on the raise hand button, which can be found at the black bar at the bottom of your screen.
When it is your turn to ask a question, you will receive a prompt and be promoted as a panelist.
Please accept a moment, and once you have been introduced, you may unmute yourself, turn your video on, and ask your question.
Written questions can be submitted on the webcast by using the 'Ask Question' tab at the top right of your screen.
As a reminder, we are allowing analysts one question and one related follow-up today.
If you would like to ask more questions, please raise your hand again to rejoin the queue.
To allow questions to enter the queue.
Our first question comes from Jesse Selber with BTIG. If you'd like to turn on your audio, turn on your video, and ask your question.
Hello. Um, everyone, this is Jesse Sson with BTG. Thank you for taking our questions. I just wanted to ask about the recent transaction involving Keemstar and the decision to bring the asset public via a SPAC.
Uh, could you share the motivation for choosing a SPAC structure for this process? And then, additionally, um, you know, you noted that you, uh, you own nearly 90% of the asset looking ahead. How are you thinking about your future ownership stake? Would you consider selling a portion of the Holdings to generate liquidity? Um, how, how would you balance the liquidity versus maintaining control of the asset? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Jesse, for the question. So, with regard to Kear's D-SPAC transaction.
You know, we are a True Believer in Ukraine's future and that's why we are championing invest in Ukraine. Now initiative throughout, uh, the world. And we thought it would be the right thing for us to find a deal. Certain fast track to list Kia star. And that's why we have opted for a this back process. And I'm very glad to conclude it on a successful basis as K star is now listed in NASDAQ, as a valuation which is 2.3 times, its net Equity value of 1.25 billion at 2.8 billion dollars. I think this was a very, very successful transaction from our side. Now naturally spark comes with additional cost. Given that deals certainly element and the uh speed of transaction process. But overall, I think being a Pioneer in making sure creating opportunities for international investors in Europe.
And us in participating in the future growth of Ukraine. I think it was the right thing. Now, looking with the same perspective, ...
We are keen to allow more investors to invest in Kastar.
So we will be open to diluting our current position further to allow people from Ukraine first of all to have a chance to invest in Kfar, and any credible international investor to also come in and be part of the success story that will be filled in Ukraine. We will continue championing our Invest in Ukraine Now initiative all around the world as well.
Thank you.
Our next question.
Comes from Nicholas. Payton with Edison Group. If you'd like to turn your video on, turn on your audio and ask your question.
Nicholas. Hi you.
Thank you very much for allowing me the question. Just a quick question on, uh, kyivstar. There's quite a lot of cash at the, at the head office level. I think it's 600 million or so dollars. What's, uh, what's the plan for that? And uh, how easy will that be to repatriate up the up? The chain?
I think Nicholas $653 million is the headquarters, cash at Beyond, not TFR $70 million. Uh, $470 million would be the right amount for Gift Star. And as you know, uh, we are still at work, so martial law still stays in place. During martial law, there are limitations on upstreaming.
Million dollar per company type of a dividend limit. But what we would like to see, actually just in line with our Invest in Ukraine initiative, you will see us actually investing in Ukraine. We have been active with healthy acquisitions and okay acquisitions. We believe that there is a unique opportunity to build a digital ecosystem in the country. And, you know, naturally based on the needs of the country, whether it is energy resilience, energy storage needs, or, you know, investing in growth opportunities. We will be also looking into those, but in the meantime, our objective is to make sure that we keep our cash safe in, uh, in assets that are, um, you know, either generating cash or creating, uh, capacity for us to protect ourselves from potential devaluations.
Make sense. Thank you.
Some agent candy with emerging and frontier capital.
If you'd like to unmute yourself, turn on your camera, and ask your question.
All right. I hope you have your... It's good to see you there. I'll be... Well, I'm sorry. My video is not... Uh,
Functioning well today. So I'll just stay. You can see my picture. Um, I have 2 questions first, uh, relating to, um, UTC and just infrastructure in general, um, within care star. Will we be seeing you continue to pursue divestment along the Pakistan model of Tara Assets in the Ukraine? Um, or is the Hope or is the Von Plan to retain control of that for the foreseeable future? Particularly given that, um, gift store is now talking about a significant Network upgrade. And uh,
Uh, you know, it's the beginning of the touch on 5G in line with the national development strategy. The second question I have, um, relates to the financial services in Pakistan. Now, is JazzCash a standalone entity or a bank? Um, how do you sort of see them working with, um, the cellular business? Um, can we get some more color on what type of loans are being extended?
and finally, um,
um,
do you do you sort of see uh, further initiatives and value extraction for the Pakistan business?
Well, let me start by answering your first question about our tower business in Ukraine. It's not surprising, and I think it's no secret that we have a strategy of being asset-light. We actually see tower operations as more valuable under the management of independent tower companies, which allows for the sharing of infrastructure among multiple operators. So, it's no different in Ukraine. The first step was us creating our independent tower company, which I think is a move in the right direction. We will be looking for opportunities to share infrastructure in the country in a more effective way, ultimately ensuring that the tower operations are owned and operated by an independent party that can further focus on marketing activities related to this infrastructure.
There are multiple benefits of separating Towers from the operating companies. As you know, our telecom industry is being heavily penalized by cross-subsidization of business models, like infrastructure businesses and service businesses. In everything we do, we try to avoid that and make sure that we focus.
On the right customer rather than, uh, you know, cross-subsidizing different businesses. So you will see more, uh, uh, actions and news on that front. We are, uh, one of the biggest infrastructure providers, of course, in Ukraine, but I believe no telecom company can afford to have its own exclusive networks. We need to learn to share networks, and that's the path for increasing cash generation capacity for our businesses. So, and uh, that's, uh, uh, first question. The second question: Financial Services business.
In countries like Pakistan, the unmet demand in Financial Service uh area is huge. Uh people who are unbanked, who have no way of uh having access to financial services, uh, is a existing opportunity that we have supported. So that's why, you know, we have our uh, micro Finance, Bank mmbl, as well as our digital wallet, Operator, just cash serving our customers. There we have a close to 50 million bank accounts and a monthly active user base of 22 million people.
On an average day in Q3, we issued 153,000 Nano loans. These loans are around $30 to $40 in nature and they are really the type of money that a taxi driver would need if they had a flat tire or needed to have one day’s advance for putting gasoline into their tank, or a housewife would need that $30 to buy some flour, sugar, and eggs to make some cookies and sell in the marketplace.
These are really the type of loans that provide lifeblood to practically all small businesses and family businesses. We are very proud to make this work. Now, naturally, we also have a merchant network of 700,000 merchants.
Which is the mobile payment clearance platform, and we transact almost 13% of total GDP.
So for us, it's not only being big, but it is on being really serving the customers on a daily basis. And this business is growing at 33% year on year and it is uh, I think uh going to be an extremely successful case study when it comes to the uh you know, digital Banking and fintech businesses. We will of course, be looking into how we can take this business even at a higher scale. And, you know, you might see actually some strategic investors also looking into this together with us.
If you can go to the third question again?
You repeat it, please.
Fine, I guess the follow-up is just on that, given that Standalone. Is there any?
Are you looking at value extraction or value recognition for your digital assets in places like Pakistan?
I think the answer is, uh,
Clearly. Yes, as the opportunities come to the right level and scale for our Digital Services portfolio, we have two important purposes. One is the multiplayer strategy that we have on our regular telecom business. As our customers use our Digital Services, they stay longer with us and consume more. And then, of course, the direct digital revenue.
The revenue potential of these service lines, from entertainment to financial services, drives additional growth for us. To be precise, the Artful level increase and the churn reduction of Digital Services' impact on our SIM user base has nothing to do with the direct digital revenues that we report. These are two different growth streams. The growth on one side drives our business on the Telecom side, and the other one drives the business on the Digital Services side. When the right scale arrives, of course, we will be looking for crystallization of the value of our Digital Services portfolio.
Okay, thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Ahmed Mustafa.
You may now unmute your audio, turn on your video, and ...
Hi everyone, Thanks for presentation and congrats on the numbers. I have 2 questions. Uh J delivered a strong a margin up left this quarter. And yet you have indicated that uh, that uh, consolidated margins, May soften over the long run as Digital Services team. So how do you manage this trade-off between still and profitability and second, uh, you have raised your AA growth guidance for this year. Uh, so could you walk us through the main drivers behind this Improvement in the individual margin?
Ahmed, um, you know, a good point. You know, we taught the Digital Services businesses will be having a bigger dilution on our EBITDA margin so far. We failed on that. Yes, our everyday margins are also improving compared to, uh, you know, the business as our Digital Services are growing. But, um, I think, you know, I attribute that on really discipline when it comes to operational cost management of our operations. But let me also give the word to our CFO, Brock. Anything you would like to add on that? No, yes. In on top of the discipline in terms of driving efficiencies on the cost side, we are also having disciplined pricing.
Actions price increases that we are taking in line with the market conditions, that would be the inflation, the valuation, plus the GDP growth. So those two combined together definitely are helping our March.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from.
since since Fernando with 01,
If you would like to unmute yourself,
ask a question and turn on your camera.
Hello Vincent.
Instant, we can't hear you yet.
So we try again, move to the next question. Maybe come back to Vincent.
Hi, can you hear me now?
Yes, yes, yes, yeah. I apologize for that. Hey, I just want to ask again about the Jazz cache and MMBl. Um.
Markets.
Um, the other question is that, um,
You know, when you look at the Maus for jazz cache, it's about 20.6 million. I think most most recently, your total Telco Subs are 72.7 million so there's still a lot of room to actually convert. Just your existing Subs, uh you know into um Jazz cache or mmbl customers. So do you are? There are there strategies you have to sort of you know increase the penetration um for for that as well. Those are my 2 questions. Thanks.
Vincent, I think you're spot on in terms of both organic and accelerated growth opportunities in this business. Now you need to keep in mind that Pakistan is still a frontier Market where 4G penetration, as well as smartphone penetration has certain limits in terms of the penetration capabilities, I translate those into upsides that are in front of us. So uh, 1 of the key initiatives that you will see us focusing on in Pakistan is smartphone ownership affordable. Smartphones will be critical and they will come up with, of course, their own embedded, Digital Services, uh, on top of them. So uh we have quite a lot of appetite in this conversion and I would like to make sure that you know, everybody who is our customer is having access to the Digital Services whether be on financial services or entertainment or Healthcare or education to have access to these platforms. So you're right.
In addition to the growth that we see, I think the organic growth can, uh, you know, accelerate, and that's the basis of the sustainable growth expectation we have from the marketplace, really.
Now with regard to our ability, to Leverage The competencies and the experiences that we built in Pakistan in other markets. Absolutely. And that's why, you know, we are very excited about the growth potential in Bangladesh and potentially in Ukraine and uh you know, the knowhow that we have in terms of, you know, risk managing a bank, first of all. But also having credit scoring engines fine-tuned for these type of non loans, all these capabilities are applicable in all the markets and of course Our intention is to make sure that we leverage these just like our intention around, you know, making book loan or healthy or Healthcare platform, or our right sharing platform. Also be available through all the super apps we have in all the countries.
Got it. Just 1 little quick follow on on that. So, uh, Pakistan, I believe has a digital Bank licensing framework, but I, I guess under mmbl. You also have a license, their do you is there value in you, uh, having 1 of those digital Bank licenses, or is it that you can actually operate? You know, you can have MML, I guess operate on Parts where you want more banking services, Jazz casual and payments is just don't understand if if that's if that's something that's
Part of the roadmap, or maybe just not needed.
Well, we we operate currently under the micro Finance, banking license. However, I believe that we can do more and we can contribute more to the cashless economy initiative of prime minister, that will require us to upgrade our license to a digital Bank. Full digital Bank license. And we are in the process of looking for ways of achieving that, uh, server rather than later. Uh, I think you know, the success story of jazz cache is very visible and recognized very strongly by the Pakistani government, as well. They want the same, we want the same and, you know, I think, you know, we will get to a level of much higher, um, capabilities. If you upgrade to a full digital Bank license and we are working on it
Great, thank you so much.
Our next question comes from Ali with Anam. If you'd like to ask a question.
Hi everybody. Thank you so much for this opportunity.
Uh, so my question is related to Ryan healing. We have seen that it already contributes; it's like the third largest contributor to the digital revenue. Uh, so do you have any plans to like explore other markets for this business? Specifically, Pakistan, considering the recent exit of the major player in that country? Do you see a potential for like an entry and growth in this segment?
Kazakhstan or Pakistan, or at the same time, we are working on different sorts of initiatives, but it will be a city-by-city decision, as every city has different characteristics.
Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Matthew Harrigan with the Benchmark Company.
If you would like to unmute, I, I feel more confident in putting out a positive Von preview than I do on T-Mobile or comcast, which is, uh, I'm not sure whether that's good or bad for my, uh, perspective, but, uh, 1 thing that's interesting. And clearly the Dynamics for you are different because you're such a market leader. But when you look at T-Mobile in the US, they have a very strong benefit from switching share, you know, relatively Verizon in AT&T to other large competitors that don't have as good a network. But still, you know, definitely, uh, big, big animals that they're, they're wrestling with. And if you really assume that there's not a lot of growth in the US uh mobile market just by virtue of their switching share. You know, they can continue to put up, you know, really really nice numbers and you know you're
Yeah, that analysis I guess would be pertinent to you on the...
The full gamut of apps that you're writing as well as mobile. But are you such a market leader that, you know, anything that comes along with Device Innovation or any perceptions of network quality, don't affect you that much because almost by definition, you're so much larger than your competitors that it's, it's, you almost definitionally have to erode a little bit or do you think that as you do get, you know, CS you see. And I I know people are not buying, you know. I I I iPhone 17 pros and Pakistan very often, but do you feel like we're switching share and device Innovation and awareness of how powerful these apps are and how, how good it is. They have the best mobile network when you're running these apps, that it could, it could help you. Or or do you think that you're kind of largely a function that just types, really, really correlates with the overall, you know, market growth, and mobile, and the demand for the apps. Sorry, a little long-winded there, but I'm sure you get the gist of it. Thank you.
Matthew, I think the opportunity that is in front of us is exciting from two perspectives. Not only do we have the Digital Services, which are attractive to our customers, but also there are so many customers who are still not yet connected. We're going to be having 90 million additional people who will be having access to 4G networks, who will be buying their.
First smartphones and hopefully those smartphones will be bought from us with our applications installed on them with their ability without having maybe a credit card that they can pay for the services for the games for the videos, for the channels that they need. And that's why I'm excited because yes, we are big. You know, we are except for Bangladesh. We are number 1 in all the markets that we operate in and in Bangladesh we are number 1. If you compare our entertainment platform and the other super apps that we have, and I truly believe that as our customers who have never touched yet any other service than calling somebody and there are 40 million of them on our Network. Those people will have a smartphone, they will have their first connection, they will watch their first movie online on mobile networks. And we are looking forward to those days and 40 million of them will be there to basically be our customer.
Customers. That's why I believe the organic growth is an incredible opportunity. That's why I opened with that slide, but the acceleration that will come through Digital Services will just be unmatchable as an opportunity for us to grab.
Okay. No. That's you're in a better position than having to fight to grab market. Share at a privileged position, but you kind of are that you kind of are the market growth. That's the good place to be. Thank you.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please click on the raise hand button, which can be found at the black bar at the bottom of your screen.
When it's your turn to ask a question, you will receive a prompt.
And when it's your turn to ask a question, you'll be promoted as panelists.
Except wait for a moment, and once you have been introduced, you may unmute yourself, turn your video on, and ask your question.
Our next question comes from Vincent. Fernando, with 01.
If you'd like to unmute yourself, turn your camera on, and ask your question.
Instantly can't hear you again.
I think I think it's a little lag. I'm I'm here. Um, so I just want to double tap again on the, uh, on the, uh, fintech and Pakistan. You you reported 23.8 mil ibida for the third quarter. Um, are you give any color on on? Maybe how much of that, like where, where can we start to look at a run rate? Because you did 20.3 mil on the second quarter 23.8 mil ibida, USD, in third quarter. I'm just trying to try to find a base for a run rate. Is it, uh, relatively recurring in nature? I just want to understand that. Thank you.
Our financial services business in Pakistan, is actually quite a steady growth business. So over the last 6 quarters, they recorded. We have been seeing a, you know, continuous growth of 40 to 30% every single quarter and looking into our future. I see no reason for this to go down. I think, you know, we will continue keeping that lines. Uh, clearly The Lending business has, uh, balance sheet criteria in terms of growth, but currently I feel comfortable with those
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. We have no further questions at this time.
I will now pass back to Anand Ramachandran for closing remarks.
Thank you, Chris. Thank you. Well, guys, thank you so much for dialing in. As usual, thank you so much for your support of VEON. If you have any questions at all, please email us or call us here, and we'll continue talking.
But until then, till the next quarter, thank you, and bye. Bye.
Thank you.