May 15 (Reuters) - VEON , the

parent company of Ukraine's Kyivstar and Pakistan's Jazz,

reported a 9% rise in quarterly revenue to $1 billion, as more

consumers picked up its digital services despite the conflicts

in Ukraine and Pakistan.

Kyivstar and Jazz are the largest mobile operators in

Ukraine and Pakistan, respectively.

VEON reported an earnings before interest, taxes,

depreciation, and amortization growth of 13.7% to $439 million

and confirmed its outlook for 2025.

The company is shifting to a "digital operator" strategy,

offering financial, healthcare and entertainment services in

addition to mobile connectivity.

"We believe that the future of our industry will move in

this direction. It's not anymore about selling number of minutes

or number of gigabytes," CEO Kaan Terzioglu said.

VEON's various entertainment, financial services and

superapps - digital platforms offering a wide range of daily

life services like China's WeChat - have grown 20%, 33% and 22%,

respectively, from last year.

"We have quite big technology companies... With these

technology companies, actually, we do have capabilities to

develop our own applications, which are actually visible in the

fields of entertainment, financial services, education and

healthcare, and also our AI tools", Terzioglu said.

In Ukraine, VEON's business saw a 20% year-on-year growth,

with digital services driving the momentum. Kyivstar TV revenue

surged 177%, while its recent acquisition of ride-hailing

service Uklon further boosted digital revenues.

Kyivstar's healthcare platform, Helsi, which provides online

consultations, also grew, with 2.6 million consultations per

month.

In Pakistan, VEON's digital revenues continued to drive

growth, with a more than 20% increase in revenue.

Terzioglu said the escalation in conflict in Kashmir has

been worrying, but expressed positivity about the situation

settling down.

(Reporting by Leo Marchandon; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)