Dear shareholders,
2018 was a very successful year for Orange Polska. It was
the first full year of implementation of the strategy adopted in
September 2017, which is aimed at achieving turnaround at the
Company and establishing a business model that will allow it to
grow on sustainable basis. Last year’s results proved that the
strategy – based on convergence, rollout of the fibre network,
developing adjacent business lines and increasing efficiency –
is working well. Revenue trend visibly improved, while adjusted
EBITDA was higher year-on-year for the first time in 12 years.
This was a stronger performance than the stabilisation that the
management promised to the market. It should be noted that it
was achieved without increasing expected capital expenditures,
or changing the level of financial leverage. This speaks for
itself, especially since the Polish telecom market remains very
competitive and the Supervisory Board assessed last year’s
financial performance of Orange Polska very highly.
Last year the Management Board also proved that it can
successfully explore new business opportunities, signing
a wholesale agreement to give another operator access to our
fibre network. In the opinion of the Supervisory Board, this
cooperation will contribute to faster monetization of Orange
Polska’s investments in the fibre network and accelerate
convergence of telecom services based on fibre in the Polish
market.
During the last financial year, the Supervisory Board was
involved in all decisions of fundamental significance for Orange
Polska. We monitored the Management Board’s governance in
managing the business to ensure that these activities were lawful
and compliant with legal provisions and internal standards and
policies, as well as appropriate and efficient. At each meeting,
the Supervisory Board discussed in detail the Company’s
current financial and operational results in comparison to the
budget adopted at the beginning of the year. More details of the
Supervisory Board’s assessment of Orange Polska are presented
further in this chapter.
The frequency of the Supervisory Board and its committees’
meetings mean that we are in close contact with the
Management. In 2018, five Supervisory Board meetings, a oneday off-site Orange innovation conference, and 14 meetings of
the Supervisory Board’s committees took place. The overall
average participation rate was 95.9%. Written votes were used
on two occasions when resolutions were required between
meetings.
In recognition of their competence and commitment, as well as
emphasising the importance of strategy implementation, social
responsibility and network development to Orange Polska, the
Supervisory Board appointed Witold Drożdż and Piotr Jaworski
as members of the Management Board in October last year. Also,
to recognise his leadership and huge commitment to the effort of
the ambitious turnaround strategy, the Board reappointed JeanFrançois Fallacher for the next term as the CEO of Orange Polska
before the expiration of his current term of office.
Looking forward to 2019, in the opinion of Supervisory Board,
the Management should stick to the priorities outlined in the
Orange.one strategy, take advantage of Poland’s favourable
macroeconomic situation, and prove that it is able to sustain
the good momentum from 2018. One topic that will gain in
importance is preparation for the advent of 5G technology; this
will involve a lot of business decisions and cooperation with the
Polish authorities regarding their 5G strategy.
I am convinced that Orange Polska’s strategy and the prudent
actions of the Management Board supported by the Supervisory
Board will enable the Company to return to sustainable growth,
and that in due course this success will be shared with
shareholders in the form of dividends.