Altice sees signs of recovery
March 16, 2018
Altice, the Netherlands-based multinational telecoms company, said it was seeing signs of a recovery in the French market as it reported its annual results. The debt-ridden group is currently undergoing a restructuring to improve its numbers.
The group posted revenue growth of 0.6 per cent year-on-year for the FY 2017.
Dexter Goei, President of the Board of Altice, said: “After several years of acquisitions, 2017 was the year of integration and execution, with an ongoing focus on making our customer experience better. As well as accelerated investment into upgrading our fixed and mobile networks for better quality services, Altice rapidly expanded its media and advertising businesses as new areas of growth. In parallel, Altice has taken important steps to simplify the group and separate the business into a European and US group with distinct strategies. Altice Europe has tremendous opportunities as we deliver on our operational aspirations, led by new management reporting to Altice founder Patrick Drahi. At the core of our strategy is the operational and financial turnaround in France and Portugal.”
“Altice USA sees exciting opportunities in the US market. We continued to have great momentum in 2017 and delivered strong financial results by growing our customer base, revenues and margins with high free cash flow growth. In 2018 and beyond, we will remain very focused on investing for growth in innovation, superior service and advanced networks to deliver a more robust and differentiated product portfolio to meet customers’ needs,” he concluded.
2018 Guidance
For the full year 2018, Altice Europe (post-split) on the new perimeter is expected to generate operating free cash flow of €2.4 to €2.6 billion, excluding the Altice TV segment. As previously announced, Altice France is expected to generate operating free cash flow of €1.6 to €1.7 billion, which includes c.€300 million of annual pay TV content expenses and reflects c.€200 million of revenue drag related to changes to the value added tax law in France.