Eircom has reported a decline in revenues for its first fiscal quarter from €401m last year to €399m this year. However, the incumbent operator demonstrated a 348pc increase in operating profit to €112m from €25m last year.
It claimed during the quarter DSL customers increased from 141,000 at the end of June to 156,000 as of 18 August.
The company said during the quarter its €420m acquisition of mobile operator Meteor was done on a debt-free basis, financed by a rights issue. It indicated the rights issue and acquisition are conditional upon the approval of Eircom shareholders.
The company said it made an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) margin of 37pc on restructuring programme costs, non-cash pension charges and profit on disposal of property of €149m.
The company also said it saw €60m worth of cash outflow for capital investment in the quarter focused on increasing capacity, demand growth and its DSL broadband rollout.
Eircom also said it increased its sales and marketing spend to drive DSL and Talktime packages.
It said the final dividend of six cent approved by shareholders at the recent AGM resulted in a total dividend of 11pc per share paid in the past year.
By John Kennedy
