Eircom report flat third quarter earnings of €119m

Eircom have continued to stabilise its finances after reporting earnings before interest, tax and depreciation of €119m - flat on the previous year.

The report for its third financial quarter shows a fall in revenue for the three-month period of around 5% to €315m on the corresponding prior year period.

The company attributed some of this to the €10m spent on repairs after the damage of "unprecedented winter storms".

Operating costs, including the €10m for repairs, for the quarter were €206m, down €6m or 2% on the corresponding prior year period.

Commenting on the results, CFO Richard Moat said: "The Group generated underlying EBITDA of €119m for the quarter to 31 March 2014, which is broadly in line with our expectations and the prior year, and demonstrates continued stabilisation in business performance. Reported EBITDA of €109 million included €10 million of network repair costs and as a result reduced by 8% compared to the same period in the prior year.

"The Wholesale segment continues to perform strongly and year to date has gained an equivalent of 84% of Retail access losses. Mobile revenue is stabilising and the profitability of the mobile business continues to improve increasing by €4 million compared to the prior year quarter. The quality of the customer base also continues to improve and at the 31 March 2014 39% of our base comprised of postpaid customers (including mobile broadband), an increase from 31% in the prior year.

"Our programme of cost transformation continues. To date, 1,747 employees have exited the Group since 1 January 2013. A further 200 employees will leave the business by the end of December 2014. In addition to delivering cost savings, these exits deliver a flexible and streamlined organisation. We have also achieved €100 million in operational cost savings on an annualised basis by the 31 March 2014, three months ahead of target."

It also reported 1,931,000 retail customers at the end of March, including 1,072,000 mobile customers. It said its total customer base - including wholesale customers - stood at 2,408,000.

The company had 704,00 broadband customers by the end of March, a rise of 8,000 in the quarter, which was mainly driven by its wholesale business.

In its mobile business, Eircom said its customer numbers rose by 6,000 to 1,072,000.