France Telecom topped earning estimates for the first half of 2005 driven strong growth in wireless and broadband services. The company also reported promising numbers for its TV-over-DSL consumer service, which has now topped 116,000 subscribers.
First half 2005 Group revenues were EUR 23.7 billion, up 2.3% on a pro forma basis (4.5% on an actual basis). France Telecom noted faster growth in Q2 2005 of 3.6%, up from 1.0% in Q1 2005 (pro forma figures). Some highlights:
Personal Communication Services:
- 8.6% revenue growth in Q2 2005 on a pro forma basis (12.3% on an actual basis)
- 66.7 million mobile customers at June 30, 2005 (up 16.3% on a pro forma basis compared to June 30, 2004)
- 6.4 million broadband customers in Europe (including 3.7 million in France and 927,000 in Poland), an increase of 80% in one year
- 116,000 TV-over-DSL subscribers (+69% in six months). Some 7 million lines are now eligible for MaLigne TV. Over 1,000 hours of VOD are currently available for subscribers.
- In it home market, France Telecom now holds a 48.6% share of the retail ADSL market. There are now an estimated 7.8 million ADSL lines in France, of which 3.7 million are served by FT Consumer, 2.3 million are unbundled lines, and 1.8 million are other lines.
- In Poland, France Telecom now has 888,000 ADSL customers
Enterprise Communication Services:
- 364,000 Business Everywhere customers
- 13% increase in revenues from services
Some additional highlights:
- Gross operating margin of EUR 9.3 billion, up 5.1% on a pro forma basis (6.2% in actual figures)
- Gross operating margin ratio of 39.3%, compared with 38.6% for the first half of 2004 (on an actual basis)
- Operating income of EUR 6.5 billion, up from EUR 4.3 billion at June 30, 2004
- Group share of net income equal to EUR 3.4 billion at June 30, 2005, up from 1.0 billion at June 30, 2004
- CAPEX at EUR 2.7 billion, up 29.6% on a pro forma basis, with a CAPEX to revenues ratio of 11.5%
- Organic cash flow of EUR 2.9 billion at June 30, 2005, compared with EUR 3.3 billion at June 30, 2004
- Net financial debt of EUR 46.3 billion, with a ratio of net debt to gross operating margin of 2.50
- In Q1 2005, 890,000 ADSL access points were added across France. This includes lines served by France Telecom and the unbundled lines served by other carriers. The total number of ADSL access points in France (including unbundled lines) topped 7.2 million, up from 4.1 million a year earlier. As of 31-March-2005, France Telecom had 5,150,000 ADSL lines in its home market, of which 3,364,000 were serviced by its own Internet service and 1,787,000 were using third party ISPs.
