Kabel Deutschland 7.7% revenue growth
August 14, 2012
Growth across Internet, phone and TV market has driven KDH revenues for the quarter up by 7.7 per cent to €444 million. In comparison, in the first quarter of last year, revenues grew by 5.8 per cent year on year.
TV revenues increased by 3.5 per cent to €294 million year on year, while Internet and Phone revenues grew by 17.1 per cent to €150 million. EBITDA for the first quarter stood at €209 million compared to €193 million in the previous year’s first quarter (up 8.2 per cent). EBITDA margin climbed to 47.1 per cent, up from 46.9 per cent in the prior year’s first quarter.
Capex was €116 million in the period under review, and the Company generated €94 million of operating free cash flow which translates into an operating free cash flow margin of 21.1 per cent. It posted a net profit of €66 million.
Total net debt declined to €2.738 billion as of June 30, 2012 (previous year: €2.803 billion). The net debt to EBITDA leverage ratio decreased from 3.8 times one year ago to 3.4 times, within the Company’s leverage target range of 3.0 to 3.5 times
Kabel Deutschland started its fiscal year 2012/13 with a solid operational performance in the first quarter. It added 65,000 new Internet and Phone subscribers, compared to 52,000 net additions in the first quarter of last fiscal year, up by 18.5 per cent year on year. The Company has now 1.7 million Internet and Phone subscribers.
The total blended Internet and Phone ARPU for the quarter was stable at €28.44 (previous quarter: €28.41). The decline of the variable ARPU component to €4.73 (prior quarter: €5.10) was predominantly caused by reduced interconnection revenues for incoming calls and offset by further recovery of the fixed ARPU component to €23.72 from €23.31 last quarter.
In the first quarter, Premium TV RGUs grew by 102,000 (versus 53,000 units in the first quarter of the prior fiscal year). Thereof, DVRs accounted for 56,000, and Pay TV for 47,000 RGUs. Furthermore, on June 30, 2012, 688,000 smartcards were activated for the HD Private offering (not counted as RGUs).
The total blended TV ARPU per subscriber increased to €10.20 in the first quarter, up by €0.50 or 5.2 per cent from €9.70 in the previous year’s first quarter, as a result of continuous upselling of Premium TV products into the customer base.
With 7,546,000 subscribers, the direct subscriber base was up by 10,000 quarter on quarter and 23,000 year on year as of June 30, 2012. The number of total unique subscribers remained stable quarter on quarter with 8,537,000 (March 31, 2012: 8,545,000).
Total RGUs grew by 229,000 quarter on quarter (compared to 137,000 in the first quarter last fiscal year). Overall, the Company recorded 13.7 million RGUs on June 30, 2012, up 6.6 per cent or 843,000 from previous year. The continuous increase of subscribers taking more than one of Kabel Deutschland’s products lifted the RGU per subscriber ratio to 1.60 from 1.47 one year ago. The higher penetration of the customer base with New Services led to an increase of the total blended ARPU per subscriber to €15.38 in the first quarter of the current fiscal year – up by €1.40 or 10.0 per cent year on year.
On May 21, 2012 Kabel Deutschland announced that it has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire Tele Columbus with approximately 1.7 million customers. The purchase price amounts to €603 million plus accrued interest. The acquisition is subject to the approval of the German Federal Cartel Office. Closing is expected in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year 2012/13.
In part to fund the buy on June 18, 2012 KDH successfully placed €400 million of Senior Notes due 2017 with a 6.5 per cent coupon. The net proceeds contributed to KDH’s operating subsidiary KDVS as a subordinated shareholder loan and were used to replace a portion of the €600 million bridge financing for the acquisition of Tele Columbus.
On June 27, 2012 Kabel Deutschland and Media Group RTL Germany announced that they reached an agreement on the distribution of their Free to Air TV, Pay TV and Video on Demand (VoD) content. As part of the contract, the distribution of the TV channels was agreed in analogue, digital SD and digital High Definition (HD).