Partner Communications earnings slip in Q3

• Partner Communications (NASDAQ:PTNR) faced flat revenues and declining earnings in its Q3 results, though it pointed to highlights in its growth engines.
• Profit was more than halved, to 26M shekels (about $7M) from 54M shekels. EBITDA fell 16% to 201M shekels.
• The company pointed to a 13th quarter of postpaid gains -- net adds of 11,000, with ARPU up and churn down -- but overall cellular subscriber base declined by 1%, to 2.65M, and ARPU fell 6%, to 60 shekels (about $17).
• Meanwhile, CEO Isaac Benbenisti focused on gains in TV and fiber-optic. The TV subscriber base rose by 92,000 households to hit 106,000.
• And the Partner Fiber infrastructure reaches more than 250,000 households, he says; the launch has "shattered in record time the technological stagnation imposed on the Israeli consumer by the fixed line monopoly."
• Revenue breakout: Service, 654M shekels (up 5.5%); Equipment, 168M shekels (down 5.1%).
• Net debt was 898M shekels (about $248M), up 11M shekels.
• Earnings call slides
• Earnings call transcript
• Previously: Partner Communication beats by $0.01, misses on revenue (Nov. 21 2018)
• Press release