Eircom profits up

Eircom has announced an after-tax profit of €82m for the year ended March 31, up from €79m in 2005.

The profits boosted was enhanced by a €52m profit from the sale of property.

Eircom had little new to divulge in relation to the takeover bid by Australian finance house Babcock and Brown in today's results announcement, only saying that due diligence and discussions are continuing between the parties and that "a further announcement will be made if and when appropriate".

On broadband penetration, eircom said 85% of its lines are now connected to broadband-enabled exchanges and that it now has about 250,000 broadband customers.

Eircom boss Philip Nolan said broadband availability in Ireland "is now at a comparable level to our European peers".

The acquisition of Meteor Mobile contributed €4m to group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the year.

Eircom said today that Meteor's subscriber numbers grew 66% in the year to 625,000 while turnover doubled year on year. Subscriber growth in the fourth quarter was 60,000, of which 13,000 were post-paid customers. Post-paid now accounts for about 8% of the total Meteor subscriber base.

"Meteor’s total market share at 15% is well on its way to meet our target of 20% set at the time of the acquisition," said Mr Nolan.

The acquisition of Meteor from Western Wireless International Holding Corporation was completed on November 23 last year.

Philip Nolan said: "This year eircom has continued to deliver on the three strands of our stated strategy, driving performance in our core fixed line business, growing broadband and capturing value in mobile. All of this has been achieved against a backdrop of significant corporate activity, including the highly successful rights issue to fund the Meteor purchase."

Meanwhile, basic voice traffic revenue decreased by 7% in the year to March 31. Eircom said this was primarily due to an overall decline in traffic volumes arising from loss of market share and weakness in the traditional voice market.