France Telecom reported revenues of EUR 38.1 billion for the first nine months of 2009, an increase of 0.4% excluding the impact of regulatory measures (down 1.6% on a comparable basis). EBITDA margin was 35.1%, down 0.7 points compared with the first nine months of 2008 as the company trimmed spending. The ratio of CAPEX to revenues was 9.8%, down 1.8 points compared with the first nine months of 2008 (11.6%). Q3 revenues were 12.686 billion euros, a decline of 6.4% on an historical basis compared with the third quarter of 2008, of which -2.8 points was related to the unfavorable impact of exchange rates
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France Telecom Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Didier Lombard stated: "Against a backdrop of difficult economic, social and regulatory
conditions, the Group is proving its ability to maintain its performance.
Some highlights for quarter:
- The Group had 189.1 million customers at 30 September 2009 (excluding MVNOs), up 6.6% year on year with 11.7 million additional customers (net of contract terminations) compared to 30 September 2008.
- Growth in the number of mobile customers continued rising to 128.8 million customers at 30 September 2009 (excluding MVNOs), a year-on-year increase of 9.5% or 11.2 million additional customers (net of contract terminations). There were 3.3 million additional mobile customers in Q3. At the same time, the MVNO customer base in Europe rose 35.5% to 3.8 million customers at 30 September 2009 (including 2.1 million customers in France), compared with 2.8 million customers a year earlier (including 1.7 million customers in France).
- Growth in ADSL broadband services1 continued to be strong with 13.4 million customers at 30 September 2009, an increase of 6.0% year on year. Broadband usage was also up sharply (at 30 September 2009) with:
2.9 million digital TV subscribers (IPTV and satellite), a 67% increase year on year;
7.3 million Voice over IP subscribers, an increase of 22% year on year; and
8.5 million Livebox subscribers, an increase of 14% year on year. - Revenues from traditional telephone services (subscriptions and traditional telephone communications) fell 10.3%, reflecting the 9.1% year-on-year decrease of traditional consumer telephone subscriptions (18,368 million at 30 September 2009).
- The decrease in CAPEX reflects the slowdown in investment related to 2G and 3G mobile network capacity expansions and slower growth in fixed broadband services in the European countries.
- CAPEX as a proportion of revenues should remain at less than 12% for 2009 as a whole. Capital expenditure will be higher in the fourth quarter due to normal seasonality.
