Altice Q3: Cautious on full-year targets
November 3, 2017
Telco and cable group Altice has issued cautious full-year targets as its French unit strives to win back customers by upgrading its networks and investing in media content.
The Amsterdam-based holding became the number four cable operator in the US last year through debt-fuelled buyouts but still relies on France for about half of its revenues.
Q3 sales in France fell by 1.3 per cent from a year earlier to €2.76 billion, while core operating profit dropped by 3.2 per cent.
Michel Combes, Chief Executive Officer of Altice, said: “Our priority is execution on our clear long-term strategy: to be the number one operator for the quality of our wholly-owned telecoms infrastructure and the number one convergence player, providing the best customer experience with best-in-class financial performance.”
“Revenue growth and margin expansion for Altice Group are currently being driven by the strong performance of Altice USA. The launch of Altice One is just the beginning of a new, better and simple experience for our customers as we look to become the connected home provider of choice. And as we invest more in our fiber project and digitalisation we will continue to improve service metrics, further reduce churn and see additional efficiency savings.”
“In Europe, we are intensifying the operational focus to improve customer experience and return France and Portugal to growth. To support the turnaround here we are expanding our fiber FTTH coverage at an accelerated pace as well as continuing to invest in improving our mobile network quality and providing differentiated content bundles. Lastly, we are also quickly expanding into the media and advertising space which are our fastest growing businesses in the Group today.”