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Eircom profits down 8pc in 2nd quarter

Thursday, February 21 10:13:20

Eircom this morning said that core profits fell 8pc or E10m to E119m in its second quarter as group earning declined 6pc or E23m to E361m.

Operating costs were E157m for the quarter to the end of December last, which was a 7pc improvement on the same period a year before.

Its total customer base including wholesale customers is 2,442,000 at 31 December 2012.

In the fixed line segment, revenues fell 7pc for the quarter which was reflected in a corresponding 12pc decline in fixed line EBITDA compared to the previous year.

In the broadband market, eircom gained 2,000 retail broadband customers for the quarter through 31 December 2012, resulting in 461,000 customers, a 1pc improvement on its customer base since 30 September 2012. This is the first quarter of growth in broadband customers for the past seven quarters. The PSTN customer base fell to 964,000, a reduction of 15,000 customers in the quarter, which slowed from 19,000 losses in the previous quarter.

In the mobile segment, the Group's customers grew by 1pc in the quarter to 1,086,000 through the end of December. This was largely driven by continued post-pay growth that resulted in 40,000 net mobile additions for the half year. Mobile revenues continued to decline by 5pc for the quarter but mobile EBITDA grew by E2m compared to the corresponding period in the previous year.

Commenting on the results, CFO Richard Moat said, "We are making progress to slow our revenue decline and stabilise our overall customer base. Fixed line customer losses are reducing and we continue to outperform the market in the post-pay mobile segment through improved value offerings. In addition, we are making steady progress on our E100m cost reduction programme. This improved competitiveness will maintain earnings and together with the investments we are making in a compelling network proposition in fibre and 4G high speed broadband services, we will offer greater value to customers."