PARIS – Orange SA, France’s largest telecommunications provider, reported quarterly earnings that slightly exceeded market expectations, as a surge in demand across Africa and the Middle East counterbalanced a persistent slowdown in its highly competitive domestic market. The results highlight a growing divergence in the group’s portfolio, where emerging market expansion is increasingly providing the lift needed to offset the "price wars" characterizing European telecom.
For the quarter ending in December, the company’s adjusted EBITDAaL (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, after leases) reached €3.6 billion ($4.25 billion). This figure surpassed the €3.3 billion average estimate compiled by analysts. Group revenue for the period rose 2.2% to €10.5 billion, also edging past the consensus forecast of €10.4 billion. While the core French business remains the company's largest revenue generator, it saw a 2.1% year-on-year decline, underscoring the challenges of a saturated market where low-cost rivals continue to erode margins.
The growth engine for Orange is now firmly rooted in its MEA (Middle East and Africa) division, where investments in mobile banking and 4G/5G infrastructure are paying off. Beyond its organic growth, Orange is aggressively pursuing a consolidation strategy in Europe. The company is set to become the leading operator in Spain following its full acquisition of MásOrange. Furthermore, the group is part of a high-stakes consortium currently in talks to acquire a significant portion of Altice’s French operations, a move that could fundamentally reshape the domestic competitive landscape.
The broader European telecom sector is closely watching Orange’s trajectory, as regional regulators signal a potential softening of antitrust rules regarding cross-border mergers. For Orange, these regulatory shifts represent an opportunity to transform from a legacy national incumbent into a streamlined, multi-national digital services provider. However, the success of this transition remains contingent on the company’s ability to maintain high capital expenditure (CapEx) for fiber-optic and 5G rollouts while servicing its debt.
Investors reacted with cautious optimism to the report, weighing the robust performance in emerging markets against the continued macroeconomic volatility in Europe. As the group looks toward 2026, the focus will remain on whether its international scale can provide enough operational leverage to sustain dividend growth in the face of a stagnant home market.
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