NTL reports 7% rise in revenues

NTL Ireland, the cable company that US-based firm Liberty Global is acquiring, reported revenues of €28.8 million in the second quarter of 2005, a 7 per cent year-on-year rise.

The company, which supplies television and internet services to homes in Dublin, Waterford and Galway, said it attracted an extra 12,400 subscribers in the year to the end of June 2005.

NTL Ireland has 353,600 television customers in the Republic, compared to 341,200 at the end of the second quarter in 2004. The number of households subscribing to NTL's digital television service is now 109,600.

NTL Ireland has 12,800 broadband customers and 127,500 homes in NTL's franchise areas have been upgraded to make them capable to use broadband.

Graham Sutherland, managing director, NTL Ireland, said the revenue and customer growth was "exceptionally encouraging".

Liberty Global, which owns the Republic's second-biggest cable operator, Chorus, disclosed in its results yesterday it has spent $4.5 million (€3.6 million) on NTL Ireland in the three months to the end of June 2005. Liberty Global is to buy NTL Ireland from its corporate finance firm Morgan Stanley for €329 million.

The firm, controlled by US cable entrepreneur John Malone, plans to merge NTL Ireland with its existing Irish operation Chorus if it receives clearance for the deal from the Competition Authority. This deal would create the biggest single pay television operator in the Republic.

Liberty Global used a "warehousing" finance technique to acquire NTL Ireland from its parent NTL Group, enabling Liberty Global to arrange for its bankers Morgan Stanley to buy NTL Ireland to release the cash to NTL Group speedily. Morgan Stanley has agreed to sell the asset on to Liberty Global.

Chorus lost 2,800 customers to the end of June 2005, bringing its customer base to 199,900. Liberty Global reported a net loss of $123 million for the three months to the end of June 2005, compared with a $29 million profit in the same period last year.