VEON Ltd.

Hello, and welcome to Vyond's first quarter 2025 results presentation. We ask that you please hold all questions until the completion of the formal remarks, at which time you will be given instructions for the question and answer session. Also, as a reminder, this conference has been recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. Anand Ramachandran, you may begin.

Hello, good afternoon and good morning to everyone. And thank you for joining us today for Vyond's first quarter results for the period ending 31st March 2025. My name is Anand Ramachandran, Corporate Development Officer and also heading our Investor Relations function. Allow me to introduce the senior management in the room today. Next to me is Mr. Kaan Tarziolu, a Group CEO. And next to him is Mr. Burak Ulzar, a Group CFO. Today's presentation will begin with the key highlights and business updates from Khan, followed by a discussion of financial results by the Burak. We will then open up the line for Q&A. Do note that we may make forward-looking statements during today's presentation, which involve certain risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to the company's anticipated performance, guidance for 2025, future market developments, operational and network developments and investments, and the company's ability to realize its targets and initiatives. Actual results may differ materially due to risks detailed in the company's annual report on Form 20F and other recent public filings with the SEC. Vion's release and presentation, including reconciliations of non-IFRS measures, can all be downloaded from our website. With that, let me now hand it over to Kant.

Thank you, Anant. Good morning, good afternoon, and welcome to everyone. I appreciate you joining us today for Vion's presentation of our first quarter 2025 results. We have ticked off this year on a high note, starting with our financial performance. We have achieved strong growth this quarter in reported U.S. dollar terms. We grew our revenues 8.9%, while EBITDA rose 13.7%. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, our revenues grew 2.8%. Adjusting for the deconsolidation of TNS+, on a like-for-like basis, our revenue would have grown 11.7%, and our EBITDA would have grown 15.5%. In underlying local currency terms, our revenue performance was even more impressive, delivering a 12.9% increase, outpacing both inflation and nominal GDP growth. This quarter also saw our revenues hit above the billion-dollar mark. despite the deconsolidation of TNS Plus business following its sale last year. On a second note, we continue to drive exceptional momentum in expanding our digital services portfolio. This quarter, our direct digital revenues grew by 50.2% and now represent 14.3% of our total revenues, up from 10.4% last year. We are accelerating our evolution into a services company with a telco license. Underpinned by innovative enterprise architecture and accelerating integration of AI-powered features in our digital applications as we deliver innovative solutions to customers in native languages. Our asset-light strategy remains a corner store of our value creation efforts. We are also progressing on initiatives to unlock infrastructure and tower value in all our markets. Our strategic partnership with Engro Corporation in Pakistan to pool infrastructure assets is progressing well and will unlock US$563 million in value for us. We are also progressing on initiatives to unlock infrastructure and tower value in other markets and will keep you posted. as the things develop. Last but not least, we continue to deliver for our shareholders. The second phase of our share buyback program commenced on 25th of March, and we have bought back $23 million of shares, which represent around two-thirds of the total allotment of $35 million. We have repaid $472 million of our bonds in April Following this, our only remaining bond repayments prior to 2027 are the scheduled maturities due in June 2025. We have also made a successful return to the capital markets, securing a 210 million syndicated term loan. We are making good progress on Kyivstar's listing on the NASDAQ, which we think will significantly enhance its visibility and profile. Finally, our most important asset, our people. We have strengthened our leadership capacity. The appointment of Johan Busse as CEO of BanglaLink is a good example. We have also deepened our management strength, moved to our HQ to Dubai, and some key appointments for key positions. Now turning our attention to top-line performance for the quarter. Our revenues grew by 8.9% in reported US dollar terms. Adjusting for the impact of identified items in first quarter of 24, which I will detail on the next slide, underlying local currency growth was 12.9% year-on-year. This growth comes in an environment where inflationary pressures across our markets have eased further to 7.6% on a weighted average basis in the first quarter. This demonstrates our ability to drive fair pricing and yet capture higher consumer wallet share. Moving to profitability, we reported EBITDA growth of 13.7% in US dollar terms, with a 10.4% growth in underlying local currency terms that adjusted for the identified items. Our revenue and EBITDA performance are in line with our expectations and we are confident delivering our full year's guidance. Let me now walk you through the identified items. As you can see from this slide, there are no adjustments to our performance for this quarter. The underlying year-on-year growth rates, however, are adjusted for the impact of two identified items from Q1 last year. The first one is the Ukraine cyber attack, and the second one is the sale of our TNS Plus business, which led to the business being deconsolidated from our accounts effective fourth quarter last year. Consequently, while our total revenue and EBITDA for the quarter rose 15.7%, and 22.1% respectively in local currency terms. The underlying figures which account for these impacts reflect 12.9% growth in revenue and 10.4% in EBITDA. Putting it all together, I am pleased to share a summary of our first quarter performance that highlights our continuing progress and strong growth. Our telecom and infrastructure segment contributed $880 million, and grew 4.2% year-on-year and 11.2% year-on-year in local currency terms. This showcases the capability to implement fair value pricing and unique differentiation of our digital products to keeping our customers engaged. If you would consider that TNS Plus as part of our telecoms business, adjusting for that, like-for-like growth for our telecom and infrastructure business would have been 7.1%, which is at least twice of our peers in the region. Our direct digital revenues continue to demonstrate the success of our digital operator strategy, growing 50.2% year-on-year to $147 million. On profitability, I am pleased to note that our EBITDA margins grew by 1.8 percentage points to 42.8 for the quarter, reflecting pricing controls and disciplined cost management. Our capex intensity for the quarter was 13.1%. On a last 12-month basis, it is at 20.4, but excluding Ukraine, Last 12-month CAPEC intensity stands at 17.9 and is in line with our guidance. Last 12-month equity-free cash flow is $387 million. We remain confident in our ability to improve this over the coming quarters as we optimize our investment phasing and drive operational efficiencies. Our balance sheet continues to strengthen. Net debt, excluding leases, has decreased to $1.8 billion, and our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio, excluding leases, improving to 1.2 times. Our cash position also improved. As of 31 March, we hold $1.8 billion in cash, which includes $662 million at headquarters levels. Multiplay, which counts customers that use at least one digital service in addition to voice and data services, is a key feature of our digital operator's 1,040-minute growth strategy. Increased 4G adoption remains the key driver of growth as well. Our 4G users grew 3.3% year-on-year, and 4G penetration increased by 4.3 percentage points. Multiplay segment drives growth with stronger customer engagement, higher data consumption, more frequent usage of voice services, improved retention, and ARPU expansion. Our Multiplay customers continue to generate 3.7 times the ARPU of a voice-only subscriber. We are encouraged that this ratio continues to increase even as Multiplay adoption expands and becomes a larger share of our overall subscriber base. In the first quarter, 54% of our consumer revenues were generated by multiply customers, and this is a 15% year-on-year growth. Let me now delve deeper into our digital services. These revenues are generated through our core digital services, including financial services, healthcare, education, entertainment, and enterprise services such as app tech, cloud, and software development. I'm pleased to highlight our robust direct digital revenue growth, which rose 50.2% year-on-year in reported currency and by 54.3% year-on-year growth in local currency this quarter. Direct digital revenues are now 14.3% of total revenues, up from 10.4 a year ago. We expect this trend to continue as we expand our digital portfolio and capture customer demand across our markets. Moving on to our operating markets, let me provide you with an overview of our revenue and FTA growth in local currency terms across the markets. Our Pakistan business builds on its strong performance from last year. Revenue growth at 20.3% and EBITDA growing at 13.2%. Our operations in Ukraine have begun the year with remarkable strength. Even after adjusting for the cyber attack from last year, the business achieved 20.2% revenue growth and 10.2% EBITDA uplift. Kazakhstan's revenue performance has been robust, growing 11.5% year-on-year, adjusting for the deconsolidation of TNS Plus business. EBITDA this quarter was impacted by the absence of regulatory tax benefits for the quarter. Adjusting for this, EBITDA would have been flat year-over-year. In Bangladesh, steady quarter-on-quarter trends are encouraging and indicate that the worst of the macroeconomic headwinds may be behind us. Looking ahead, we remain hopeful that the actions of the interim government will support a sustainable recovery. Lastly, Uzbekistan delivered strong results with a revenue and MTA growth of 13.1% and 16.5% respectively. Let us update you on each country's individual performance. One driver to Jazz's impressive performance was the 12% growth in telecom and infrastructure revenues. This was supported by a 16% increase in 4G users and 14% rise in mobile ARPU and reflects the strength of Jazz's network and innovative digital services. This performance is even more impressive given the macro backdrop of 2.3% GDP growth and inflation lowering to 2.2%. Direct digital revenues surged 49.5% and now contribute 27.7% of total revenues in Pakistan. Jazz cash revenues continues to grow strongly, where the year-on-year growth level is 66%, and Mobiling Microfinance Bank grew revenues by 26%. Jazz's digital brands continue to scale strongly. Tamasha, Simosa, and Ficker Free all posted significant increases in their monthly active users, which I will just refer to here as users. EBITDA growth was healthy at 13.2%, even as EBITDA margins declined slightly to 42%. Jazz's EVTA margin profile reflects a blend of high telecom margins and strong yet comparatively low digital margins. Last but not least, the strategic partnership with Engro Corporation on infrastructure sharing is progressing well. Once completed, ENGRO will pay JAS $188 million and guarantee the repayment of Diodar's intercompany debt of $375 million. Moving on to Ukraine, Kyivstar has delivered a strong quarter to kick off the year. Total revenues in Ukraine grew 49.5% year-on-year, adjusting the cyber-attack impact Revenue growth like-for-like was 20.2%. This was driven by price adjustments, a stable 4G user base, and growing adoption of Kyivstar's data and digital services, which is leading to higher mobile data consumption. Direct digital revenues grew by 141% year-on-year, propelled by the success of Kyivstar TV and our healthcare platform, HealthSeek. EBITDA growth was 64% year-on-year after adjusting for the cyber attack impact. EBITDA growth was 10.2% taking into consideration of the EBITDA impact of the cyber attack. Normalized EBITDA margin declined to 55.6% for the quarter from 6.6% last year. This was primarily due to one-of-quarter destruction costs associated with the proposed listings. The acquisition of Uklon closed on 2nd of April 2025 and marks Kyivstar's expansion into a new era of digital consumer services in line with our digital operator strategy. Last but not least, we continue to make good progress on Kyivstar's proposed Nasdaq listing through the business combination agreement with Cohen Circle at a valuation of 2.3 billion U.S. dollars. This will position Kyivstar as the first pure-play Ukrainian investment opportunity to be publicly listed in the United States. Moving on to Kazakhstan, the headline year-on-year growth rates reflect the consolidation of TNS Plus business. Excluding this, telecom and infrastructure revenues grew 9.4% year-on-year. reflecting a 3.5% increase in mobile subscribers and 1% growth in mobile ARPU. Beeline's 4.9G rollout and performance continues to resonate well with our consumers versus its 5G competitors in the market. Underlying EBITDA declined 4% year-on-year when adjusted for the TNS Plus' deconsolidation. This was primarily driven by the absence of regulatory tax benefits for the quarter, and we expect this to come back in the following quarters. Looking ahead, we expect operational leverage and disciplined cost controls to provide the margin support. In line with Group's digital operator strategy, the company's digital offerings continue to scale strongly with a 25.7% rise in users. Beeline introduced Canımda super app that offers customers a range of solutions like financial services, entertainment, gaming, and a seamless integrated one-stop shop. It is seeing very good traction with consumers and its launch has significantly broadened our reach, resulting in substantial growth for Sintleaf with its user base increasing 140%. CustCode continuously enhances capabilities in deploying generative augmented intelligent applications and developing agentic AI solutions through large language model training. Last but not least, I am pleased to note that Beeline Kazakhstan has rolled out our VeeOn ad tech capabilities across some of its products and is now serving ads to customers using these technologies. Turning to Bangladesh, quarter-on-quarter revenue stability suggests that the negative impact of macro challenges has been stabilized. Bangla Link has strategically optimized its distribution and customer acquisition model, resulting in a lower subscriber count but a significantly higher quality. Importantly, this has had virtually no impact on revenues or market share, while also beginning to deliver structural cost efficiencies. Even in this challenging backdrop, direct digital revenues are growing strongly and highlight the potential for digital services in the market. Bangla Link's ability to leverage this potential to drive growth will continue in the following quarters. Bangla Link will maintain its focus on operational agility and digital growth, continuously adapting to navigate evolving market landscapes. Looking ahead, we are optimistic that the worst of macroeconomic impact is in the past, and Bangla Link is well positioned to drive sustainable long-term growth. Moving on to Uzbekistan. B-Line Uzbekistan has started off strongly to build on last year's efforts to strengthen its market position. Revenues rose 13.1% year-on-year, supported by a targeted shift toward higher-value subscribers, resulting in improved ARPU. EBITDA grew by 16.5% year-on-year and reflects the benefits of fair value pricing. Margins expanded by 1.1 percentage points to 37.9%. The launch of our super app, Humvee, which has 4.3 million monthly active users, is powering usage of all digital platforms, including Bpool, our financial services arm, and Kinom and BTV, our entertainment platforms. This is driving strong growth in direct digital revenues and highlights the strategic importance of digital innovation in fueling Beeline's long-term growth ambitions. CAPEX declined 78% year-on-year, with a CAPEX intensity of 12.2% as the aggressive 4G rollout program from last year has been completed. Beeline will now focus on leveraging this investment into higher and sustainable revenue growth and profitability. Let's take a closer look at the continued momentum of our digital ecosystem. We are seeing strong, broad-based growth across our platforms, with total digital users reaching 125.1 million, a 26% year-on-year increase. Notably, our digital-only user base, basically customers only using our digital service with no telecom services attached, has expanded even faster, surging 58% to 32.4 million. This accelerating adoption highlights the growing appeal of our digital products and world-class competitiveness. These are fast becoming go-to solutions for consumers across the markets. I'm pleased to report that our super apps see higher levels of engagement fueled by this expanding and increasingly active user base. Taking a more detailed look at our digital portfolio, our financial services customer base increased by 33.5% this quarter, reaching 40 million users across all stated platforms on the slide. In Pakistan, Jazz Cash continues to scale rapidly, with users rising to 20.6 million. We are issuing 141,000 digital loans every single day, and this number is up 74% year on year. Gross transaction value for the quarter rose by 60% year on year, overhead inflation of 2.2%, represents an impressive 10.7% of GDP of Pakistan. This was driven by a 48% increase in total transactions and 23% uplift in transaction volumes and pricing per user. Jazz Cash's retail network continues to expand with over 340 active merchants and 120,000 active agents. Simply, Kazakhstan's second-largest digital financial services operator registered a 140% rise in its user base to 3.3 million. In Uzbekistan, Beeple continued to build on its strong momentum as its customer base grew 150% to over 2.3 million users. Our entertainment platforms capitalize on the rising demand for locally relevant content by offering digital entertainment apps that deliver enhanced user experience. These platforms not only support local content creators, but also offer compelling opportunities for advertisers to engage youth and digitally savvy audiences. Tamasha in Pakistan and Toffee in Bangladesh showed notable increase in customer engagement fueled by strong viewership during the ICC Cricket Championship. KSR TV in Ukraine delivered strong growth and its user base rising 35% year-on-year to reach 2 million. This momentum was driven by an enhanced content lineup, including the launch of a refreshed sports section within the application. BTV and Kinom, our digital platforms in Kazakhstan, have maintained steady growth as well. Our super apps continue to gain strong traction across our markets, with users up 21.7% year-on-year to 45.1 million. Positioned as one-stop digital hub, these platforms are becoming to go to destination for our customers, seamlessly integrating essential services from healthcare to entertainment to e-commerce and driving deeper engagement across our ecosystem. Meanwhile, our premium digital brands are becoming increasingly central to our digital strategy, expanding their reach and relevance across markets reaching 1.8 million users. These platforms are designed to meet evolving customer needs with curated, high-value experiences, underscoring their growing role in driving engagement, monetization, and digital leadership. Consider these premium digital brands as MVNOs on our own network. I will now hand over to Brock, who will take you through the financials in more detail. Brock?