Swedish multi-play operator Com Hem’s Q2 revenue saw a strong increase of of 38.1 per cent to SEK1,794 million (€186.39m) while organic revenue, excluding Boxer, rose by 5 per cent to SEK1,364 millon. Operating profit (EBIT) rose by 16 per cent to SEK222 million.

Commenting on the results, Anders Nilsson, CEO at Com Hem Group, said: “The Com Hem Group showed strong operational momentum with good performance across all KPIs. This translated into solid financial performance as revenue and underlying EBITDA for the Group grew in-line with guidance. In the Com Hem Segment, record consumer ARPU and churn in the quarter following our annual price adjustments give us confidence in our strategy to focus on customer satisfaction. For Boxer we see initial signs that the repositioning from a TV-centric to a broadband-led operator is getting traction, resulting in a slowdown of the RGU decline, as broadband sales grow while DTT churn is significantly reduced.

Price adjustments implemented in the previous quarter drove a sequential consumer ARPU increase of SEK8 (2.3 per cent) to a record high of SEK376 while consumer churn declined from 13.6 per cent in the first quarter to 12.4 per cent, a record low. Our customer base grew by 8,000 in the segment and the number of RGUs increased by 8,000 with very strong growth in broadband, up 11,000 RGUs, modest growth in DTV, up 1,000 RGUs, and continued decline in telephony, down 5,000. Our TiVo base grew by 4,000 customers, now at 40 per cent of our DTV base.

We made continued progress in our network expansion programme with 200,000 addressable households added in the quarter to a total of 600,000 since the start of the expansion, 200,000 of which are unique to Boxer. Since one year ago the Group has expanded its footprint by 30 per cent from 2 million to 2.6 million addressable households. In the first quarter we upgraded the footprint expansion target from 2.8 million to 3 million households by 2020, which constitutes an increase of 50 per cent from before the SDU expansion and the Boxer acquisition. In addition, we made progress on the new build project where fibre was deployed in selected trial areas during the quarter. Given high competition to deploy fibre in attractive areas, we need more time to further evaluate the feasibility of scaling up new build with attractive payback beyond the trials and expect to announce a decision later in 2017.

We started this year setting out some ambitious but achievable goals. This quarter we saw clear signs that the initiatives set in motion in previous periods are already producing concrete benefits. While we execute on our current growth drivers we also look to the future for further opportunities as we prepare the company to operate in a converged market. This continues to be a year of operational focus as we execute on initiatives to improve customer satisfaction in the core cable business, set up the Boxer business to capitalise on the fibration of the SDU market and make headway toward our goal to connect 3 million addressable households by 2020.

Categories: Articles, Business, Results