Telewest to cut 1500 jobs

Telewest (London:TWT.L) announced on Thursday that it would be cutting 1,500 jobs in an effort to save up to £50m (€81m) a year.

Telewest said the jobs would be lost on the network side of the business because the company has been upgrading the cable network over the past two years. Other cost cutting measures include cuts in capital expenditure and a proposed merging of its consumers and business customer units as part of an operational restructuring.

The company also posted first - quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £1m (€1.6m), down £3m (€4.8m) from the previous quarter and up 34% from a year ago.

Revenue rose 4% to £334m (€539.4m) year-on-year, and its net loss fell £43m (€69m) to £166m (€268m).

Shares and bonds in Telewest slipped as traders noted that its debt–to–earnings ratio stood at the same level as their larger rival NTL Inc (NYSE:NLI) were before they announced a record debt restructuring.

NTL recently outlined restructuring plans for a large part of a $17bn (€18.7bn) debt pile – fears have been raised that Telewest may do something similar to reduce its £5.3bn (€8.5) in debt.