Shares in Belgium’s number-two mobile operator Mobistar sunk to a ten-year low this morning as the firm disclosed a weaker-than-expected outlook and cut its shareholder payout.

Reuters reports that Mobistar – which is majority-owned by France Telecom – guided that earnings (EBITDA) are likely to fall 15-23 percent this year (to about EUR380-420 million), and that revenue would fall by 4-6 percent – a more pessimistic outlook than analysts had been expecting. Earnings for 2012 fell 6.8 percent to EUR494 million.

Mobistar set its 2012 shareholder dividend at EUR1.80 per share, down from the EUR3.70 paid for 2011, which included an extraordinary dividend.

It also said it would spend an extra EUR150 million over the next three years on its 4G network rollout, aiming to cover 80 percent of the Belgian population by 2015.

Mobistar is the latest in a line of European operators struggling to sustain profits in a climate of regulatory pressures and fierce competition.

“It is our opinion that competitive pressure, such as [cable MVNO] Telenet mobile offers, will keep weighing on profits in 2013,” KBC analyst Thomas Deschepper wrote in a note to clients.

The report notes that competition in the Belgian market was ramped up last year following the introduction of a new law limiting customer contracts to six months.