Telenet claims best performance since Q4 2015
JULY 30, 2020 06.54 EUROPE/LONDON BY ROBERT BRIEL

Belgian telecom operator Telenet gained 9,500 broadband customers in Q2 2020.

The operator claimed its best performance since Q4 2015, driven by improved sales and reduced churn with a obust financial performance in H1, delivering 230% profit growth due to non-cash variances in the fair value of our derivatives and 2% rebased Adjusted EBITDA growth.

At June 30, 2020, Telenet served 2,052,200 unique customer relationships, which represented approximately 61% of the 3,355,200 homes passed by the operator’s network across its Flemish and Brussels footprint.

Telenet provided 4,707,500 fixed services consisting of 1,835,600 video, 1,676,500 broadband internet and 1,195,400 fixed-line telephony subscriptions.

On April 1, 2020, the company divested its wholly-owned Luxembourg cable subsidiary Coditel to Eltrona and acquired a 34% stake in the latter from Post Luxembourg.

Following both transactions, Telenet now holds a 50% minus 1 share ownership in Eltrona, which is the largest cable operator in Luxembourg. As of April 1, 2020, SFR-Coditel is no longer consolidated in operational and financial results.

Consequently, Telenet removed 47,700 homes passed, 9,500 customer relationships and 18,500 RGUs (video: 9,200 RGUs, broadband: 5,500 RGUs and fixed-line telephony: 3,800 RGUs) from its consolidated subscriber counts.

Net profit of €184.9 million (Q2 2020: €31.7 million) in H1 2020, +230% yoy, driven by significantly lower net finance expense in the period and lower income tax expense.

H1 2020 and Q2 2020 Adjusted EBITDA of €698.0 million and €352.4 million, +5% and +2% yoy on a reported basis.