CK Hutchison Group Telecom (CKGT) lamented continued intense competition in Italy, which it blamed for a drop in revenue and customers at its largest division in Q1.

In its earnings update, the operator group again claimed “aggressive competition” from Iliad Italia and MVNOs had caused year-on-year declines for its WindTre unit.

However, it noted the trend of customer base declines had been partly stabilised by its prepay sub-brand Very, which launched last year.

Revenue in Italy fell 6 per cent year-on-year to €1 billion as its customer base dropped 6 per cent to 19 million.

Italy contributes over 42 per cent of CKGT revenue, with its 3 UK division the second largest. It also operates in Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Ireland and includes the company’s mobile unit in Hong Kong and various other corporate income streams.

In the UK revenue was up 2 per cent, while it booked a sharp increase in costs related to its IT transformation and ongoing 5G rollout. Although it described the market as “volatile” due to the pandemic, and reported a 6 per cent drop in user numbers, the company pointed to stable margins due to retention of “higher value customers”.

Across CKGT revenue was down 2 per cent to €2.46 billion. Profit figures are not reported on a quarterly basis.

During the quarter the company also continued to reap the financial benefits from the sale of various tower assets to Cellnex. Having completed the sale of its towers in Sweden for €800 million in January it expects the Italian sale to go through in June or July with the disposal of UK infrastructure assets in Q4.