Eir revenue falls 3% as competition intensifies

Eir has reported a 3% fall in revenue for the first half of its current financial year, largely due to increasing competition in the communications market.

The company generated revenues of €617m in the six months to the end of December, €17m less than for the corresponding period 12 months earlier.

Chief financial officer Stephen Tighe said performance, particularly in the second quarter, was “in line with expectations”. He attributed the decline in revenue to “intense market competition as well as regulated wholesale pricing”.

Eir said its first half earnings increased by €8m, or 3%, year-on-year to €287m.

However, this was largely driven by further cost-cutting, with Eir reducing its costs by 9% — or €10m — in the second quarter.

The company said it had a cash balance of €104m as of the end of December after paying out €80m to shareholders, €6m in refinancing fees and €100m in debt repayments.

Eir said it saw growth across its key performance indicators, including year-on-year increases in fibre broadband users, post-pay customers, and continued growth in multi product bundles.

“Our €1bn investment programme is now bringing very visible benefits to our customers,” said chief executive Carolan Lennon.

“Eir will continue to invest heavily throughout 2020 and beyond, with plans to roll out 5G to every major town in Ireland and many more towns to be passed with superfast fibre broadband,” she said.

Growth in the mobile division was driven by Eir’s new GoMo virtual mobile network product, which signed up more than 100,000 customers in its first four months of operation.