Eircom revenue fell 10% in year to end-June

EIRCOM’S REVENUES and earnings declined in the year to the end of June 30th, 2012 as the company continued to lose ground in both the fixed-line and broadband markets.

Eircom, which successfully exited examinership earlier this year after agreeing a consensual reduction in its borrowings with lenders, said yesterday that its revenues fell by 10 per cent to €1.515 billion in the year to the end of June.

Its Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) declined by 16 per cent to €542 million.

This was in spite of annualised savings in its overheads of €69 million, which represented a reduction of 7 per cent on the previous year.

Herb Hribar, the newly appointed chief executive of Eircom, told The Irish Times that the company lost “almost zero” customers as a result of the uncertainty created by the examinership process.

“I don’t think from what I see that we lost a significant amount of customers,” he said.

Mr Hribar said the company was in “good shape” to manage the €2.35 billion in gross debts that it now carries.

It previously had gross debts of €4 billion.

Earlier this year, his predecessor, Paul Donovan, had been quoted in media reports here to the effect that the debt was still too high for Eircom to be able to bear.

“I’m comfortable with where we are at today,” Mr Hribar said.

He added that his priorities are to continue to focus on cost management while investing in the network to improve its offering to customers and challenge its competitors.

“I want to return the company to a winning attitude,” he said.

In the fixed-line segment, Eircom’s revenues for the 12 months declined by 10 per cent, with Ebitda for that division down 9 per cent.

In broadband, Eircom lost 24,000 retail customers in the period. This represented a 5 per cent reduction, bringing its subscriber base to 461,000.

In its mobile segment, Eircom grew its customer base by 4 per cent to 1.076 million.

However, it said mobile revenues continued to decline in line with the wider market.

The rise in mobile subscribers was “largely driven” by continued strong post-pay growth that resulted in 40,000 net mobile additions and a 5 per cent improvement in the mix of mobile customers.

The company operates two mobile phone brands here – Meteor and eMobile.

Eircom said smartphones now account for 37 per cent of its total mobile base.

The company also announced the next stages in the rollout of its €400 million fibre investment.

Phase four of this plan will involve an additional 50 locations in 22 counties.

This will pass an additional 350,000 homes and businesses. Work will commence next spring, with the construction phase to finish by the end of 2013.