Altice Europe Q2 profit down 9.2%
August 2, 2018
Altice Europe, the multinational telco, has said that it continues to deliver on its three-pillar strategy (to “improve customer experience to drive better KPIs, invest in and own best-in-class proprietary fixed and mobile infrastructure and leverage its unique content assets”) in its Q2 results.
The number of Altice Europe’s broadband subscribers grew for the second quarter in a row in France, its key market, with 13,000 net additions over the period. It also added 211,000 mobile subscribers in the country.
However, the average revenue per user dropped by €2.6 in the second quarter in France’s fixed business, from the first three months of the year, to €32.1. It dropped by €1.5 in the mobile business and the falls are expected to weigh on future revenues and margins.
Altice Europe’s Q2 core operating profit decreased by 9.1 per cent from a year ago to around €1.32 billion.
Patrick Drahi, founder of Altice Europe, said: “Since the beginning of 2018, Altice Europe has continuously delivered on its operational turnaround plan, showing continuous improvements in subscriber trends. In France, we have gained more than half a million customers already since the beginning of this year. Altice Europe is already winning back market shares and will return to growth. Our customers remain our first priority, and we have a unique asset base with expanding premium proprietary infrastructure in both fiber and mobile and content assets to further improve their satisfaction.
“This quarter, we set up new tower partnerships in France and Portugal with prestigious partners, KKR, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Horizon Equity Partners. We will create a leading European tower business, including the #1 in France. Both tower businesses will be uniquely positioned to grow as they provide increasingly important infrastructure services to operators in both markets. These transactions underline the significant underlying value of Altice Europe’s business and assets, which is also unique in its fiber proprietary expanding infrastructure.
“In parallel, we have successfully refinanced part of our debt and made significant further progress on the execution of our non-core asset disposal program, strengthening further our long-term balance sheet position. Last and very importantly, we now have a strong and unified management team which is leading the Group to full recovery.”