Poland's Orange Polska on Wednesday evening forecast further revenue growth in 2023, after its 2022 figure rose by 4.7% to 12.49 billion zlotys ($2.81 billion).

The Polish arm of French telecom Orange said it expected a low single digit rise in revenue for the full year, as it sees a further increase in its core services of convergence, mobile and broadband on the retail markets.

The company anticipates 2023 EBITDA after leases to be flat or rise by a low single digit percentage, supported by revenue expansion in all key areas and further cost optimisation.

Orange Polska also said it expected its 2023 capex to fall within the range of 1.5 billion to 1.7 billion zlotys, compared to 1.7 billion zlotys in 2022.

"The key challenge for 2023 is obviously achieving growth despite the impact of high inflation," Chief Executive Julien Ducarroz said in a statement.

He noted that the company's commercial business model, based on fixed-term subscription contracts, makes it difficult to immediately pass the impact of inflation to end users.

The company reported on Wednesday net profit of 724 million zlotys, down 57% on 2022, but up 166% on a comparable basis, which excludes the impact related to the sale of a stake in its fibre optic unit in 2021.

Orange Polska's management also recommended a dividend of 0.35 zloty per share for 2022, a 40% increase on the year.

"We expect investors to react positively mainly to the dividend increase," Erste Securities analyst Nora Nagy wrote in a comment. ($1 = 4.4508 zlotys) (Reporting by Karol Badohal; Editing by Christopher Cushing)