Experts assessed MTS' financial results for the first quarter of 2025

The MTS digital ecosystem has published financial and operational results for the first quarter of 2025. According to the report published by the company, the consolidated revenue of the group of companies increased by 8.8% year-on-year and reached 175.5 billion rubles. This revenue trend in the reporting quarter was driven by an increase in revenue from basic telecom services, the AdTech advertising business, and the group's own media holding.

As explained in MTS, revenue is being pressured by a slowdown in lending in fintech and a decline in sales in the retail business due to lower demand. The Group's OIBDA increased by 7.1% to 63.3 billion rubles in the first quarter. The steady dynamics of OIBDA is supported by revenues from communications services, advertising segment and media business, as well as optimization of operating expenses. MTS' net debt at the end of the quarter amounted to 456.4 billion rubles, having decreased compared to the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.

According to the results of the first quarter, experts conclude that MTS' top management pays increased attention to debt servicing issues. The company has implemented a number of measures that ensure control of the debt burden, despite maintaining an unprecedentedly high key interest rate. At the same time, the company revised its approach to investments, freezing investments in a number of projects with low profitability. At the same time, MTS has abandoned high-risk acquisitions, which in the current difficult market environment will not bring significant financial results in the near future.

According to the management of MTS, the company is currently paying special attention to cost reduction.

"In the context of tight monetary policy, MTS continues to demonstrate a significant margin of financial strength, which was accumulated earlier, as well as thanks to recently announced measures to reduce costs and improve the operational efficiency of the business. In the first quarter, MTS revenue increased by almost 9%, OIBDA — by 7%, which is supported by revenue from services," said Inessa Galaktionova, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of MTS PJSC.

An important step for the company was the improvement of the corporate structure — the group formed new verticals beyond the core telecom business under the management of the MTS ecosystem, identified the leaders of new business units.

"The key event of the first quarter for MTS was the transition to the final stage of the corporate structure transformation project, which was announced in December last year. At the moment, the new legal structure of the group is almost ready. The transformation of the corporate structure sets an ambitious goal — to realize the potential of ecosystem verticals, both within and outside the group, taking into account the accumulated competencies," explained Rovshan Aliyev, President of MTS Ecosystem Group.

According to market experts, the company's current strategy ensures its steady progressive development.

"Today, MTS considers debt reduction as one of the focuses of its market policy. Based on this, the company plans cost and capital investment management measures. At the moment, MTS has practically frozen investments in low-margin projects, which has helped strengthen the company's financial position. At the same time, these measures seem to be of a long-term nature.: MTS is likely to continue to minimize costs, reduce long-term low-yield investments and capital investments. If, as many analysts predict, the key interest rate continues to decline, this approach will help the company significantly reduce its debt burden. At the same time, the company's dividend policy remains stable — this is not the first time it has paid 35 rubles per share, which ensures a good yield of about 16%," said Sergey Suverov, investment strategist at Arikapital Management Company.