Orange Group announced its strategic plan Lead the future — aiming to generate value from its core business and to grow sustainably in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Orange will be repositioning its Enterprise activities in next generation connectivity solutions and the acceleration in cybersecurity.
Orange will continue to deploy, innovate and invest in the best technologies to respond to its customers’ needs.
Orange will consolidate its strong position in cybersecurity and undertake a complete re-positioning of its B2B activities. Finally, this plan strengthens the position of the Orange Group in Africa and the Middle East, a region of high growth.
Christel Heydemann, Orange’s CEO, said: “This plan aims to enhance and develop strengths to position Orange as the group that builds the future of telecoms and digital solutions. Our aim is to achieve sustainable growth, particularly in cybersecurity, in Africa and in the Middle East.”
Four pillars of Lead the future strategy
#1 Capitalizing on core business
Orange Europe has 46 million FTTH connections in 2022, representing almost a third of connections on the continent. Orange will use Data and Artificial Intelligence to offer customers a personalized and seamless experience across its digital and physical channels.
Orange will enhance its satellite offer in 2023 with a next generation commercial offer under its own brand in France. The partnership with Eutelsat will enable individuals and businesses to benefit from High-Speed broadband experience for the price of fiber thanks to the new Konnect VHTS satellite.
Orange believes the combination with MasMovil will ensure the financial capacity and scale to invest for the development of infrastructure in Spain.
Orange aims to improve average revenue per offer (ARPO) despite difficult macro-economic conditions and intense competition through leadership in networks, customer satisfaction and enriched offers.
#2 Capitalizing on infrastructure in all the countries
Orange Group will invest in the development of fixed and mobile networks within a responsible financial framework. Orange will engage in partnerships (RAN Sharing and joint entities) to share financial costs and secure investments.
Across the fixed line network, Orange will operate and market fiber connections with the deployment of 5 million additional fiber connections in Europe, where peak investment has already been reached, and 2 million connections in the MEA region by 2025.
Across the mobile network, Orange will increase the value generated from its passive infrastructure by raising the third-party operator hosting rate from 1.37 in 2022 to 1.5 by 2026 for pylons owned by TOTEM, the Group’s European TowerCo.
The Group will modernize its fixed and mobile networks moving to very high-speed broadband with the decommissioning of the copper network in France and 2G and 3G networks in all its European countries by 2030. In Africa, Orange will deploy fixed and mobile networks (4G and 5G), to enable solid growth in its results.
Orange said Network Integration Factories will accelerate the automation and virtualization of network management, as well as the provision of new services.
#3 Transforming Orange Business Services
Orange Business Services is evolving to become Orange Business, re-positioning itself as the leader for connectivity solutions. It will be re-focusing on the range of services it offers. The main aim of Orange Business is to return to growth in profitability (EBITDAaL) by 2025.
In the cybersecurity sector, Orange wants to become a European leader and is targeting revenues of 1.3 billion euros by 2025. Orange Cyberdefense will do more acquisitions accelerating its push into the professional/SME segment and its entry into new markets such as B2C.
#4 Grow in Africa and the Middle East
Orange will invest more in the deployment of its networks to strengthen its position as a digital partner in Africa and the Middle East. Africa and Middle East region is a growth driver for the Group. Orange is serving one in ten Africans and it continues to
The Group aims to achieve average annual revenue growth of 7 percent between 2022 and 2025 as well as a significant increase in profitability.
Orange will accelerate the transformation of Orange Money aiming to offer its services to all consumers including non- Orange customers. In 2022, Orange Money’s revenues had returned to growth, driven by the increase in its customer base to more than 29 million active users and over 100 billion euros worth of transactions.
Orange will manage its costs as part of Scale Up efficiency plan. The company has already saved over 700 million euros between 2019 and 2022. Orange has set a target to save an additional 600 million euros by 2025, on a cost base of 11.8 billion euros.
Orange Group’s investments peaked in 2022 and will fall from 18 percent of revenues to around 15 percent from 2023 and for the duration of the plan. This reduction is particularly centered on France and Europe, where it made investments in fiber. Orange will invest towards Capex in order to strengthen its network leadership.
