Veon CEO Kaan Terzioglu (pictured) insisted closing the sale of its Russian operations and maintaining financial discipline are its top priorities, as the company reported a revenue drop of almost 5 per cent in Q2 2023.

The company is edging closer to an exit in Russia, announcing in May that it had submitted all the necessary documentation to complete the sale of its subsidiary to the local management team of PJCS VimpelCom for $1.6 billion.

In its latest trading update, the company excluded the results of its Russian operations, as they continue to be classified as held for sale and discontinued operations.

Total revenue for the period reached $916 million, a decrease of 4.3 per cent in reported currency year-on-year, while service revenue fell 4 per cent to $882 million.

The decline was offset slightly by multiplay and 4G revenue, which rose 8.6 per cent to $453 million, as 4G users increased 15.9 per cent to 88 million.

On a local currency basis the picture was rosier, with the company’s revenue up 19.6 per cent.

Overall mobile customers was flat at 156 million.

Breaking out individual markets, revenue in Ukraine, where the company has recently pledged to invest $600 million to rebuild the country’s telecoms sector, fell 6.5 per cent. Pakistan also suffered revenue decline of 16.6 per cent and Bangladesh was down 3 per cent.

There were some bright spots, with revenue in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan up 17.8 per cent, 17.5 per cent and 14.5 per cent respectively.

Terzioglu was upbeat on the results, pointing to the company’s digital operator strategy which had meant its operations had “consistently expanded their value proposition” across adjacent verticals.