Hugin Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG: Interim report: mobilcom AG: mobilcom Group sales jump to €522 million

Tuesday, 09. May 2006 08:16

Büdelsdorf, 9 May 2006. The mobilcom Group has announced a successful
first quarter: despite the tough competition in the
telecommunications market the company's sales increased and the
number of customers rose to just under 15 million in the segments
mobile service provider (5.0 million), Internet access (3.5 million),
telephony (5.0 million) and paid services (1.4 million).
In the first three months mobilcom Group's sales rose by nearly 16%
to €552 million. The company's drive to attract new customers had the
anticipated impact on gross earnings, which were €112.4 for the
quarter, slightly lower than the €124.3 million reported for the same
period of the previous year. As a result of the higher cost of
gaining new customers, which rose in the first quarter of 2005, and
increased marketing expenditure mobilcom's EBITDA dropped by €19.1
million in the first three months to €38.1 million (Q1/2005: €57.2
million). Despite higher expenditure the company's cash flow rose to
€460.1 million (Q1/2005: €338.2 million), thus giving the company the
flexibility to continue to generate shareholder value in the long
term and shape the consolidation of the telecommunications market.
The Group's earnings were €18.0 million (Q1/2005: €28.3 million).
Mobile service provider segment with 5 million customers and strong
growth
In the first quarter the mobile service provider segment increased
its customer acquisition activities over the same period of the
previous year. Following the loss of 50 thousand customers in the
first quarter of 2005 the service provider segment succeeded in
continuing the growth and expansion started in the forth quarter of
2005 and attracted 180 thousand new net customers. The number of
mobile telephony customers currently stands at 5 million. However,
increased efforts were required to drive this growth: with 449
thousand gross new customers mobilcom substantially increased sales
activities compared to the same period of the previous year (Q1/2005:
273 thousand). A drop in customer numbers is anticipated to take
place in the next few months, as the volume of contracts that expire
in the second quarter (churn) is expected to increase. Compared to
the same quarter of the previous year, mobile service provider sales
increased from €308.9 million to €325.4 million. As a result of
successful customer acquisition activities gross earnings dropped by
€13.0 million to €39.4 million compared to the first quarter of 2005.
The EBITDA also decreased to €11.0 million (Q1/2005: €20.3 million).
Depreciation was €2.9 million, which is lower than in the preceding
quarters, resulting in an EBIT of €8.1 million compared with €16.6
million in the first quarter of 2005.
Fixed line/Internet displays strong sales growth
In contrast to the mobile service provider segment freenet felt the
impact of an intensified competition in the first quarter of 2006;
the management has observed that since February a small number of
competitors have been offering even more aggressively priced
broadband services on the basis of the "net rental" conditions
offered by Deutsche Telekom AG. Compared with the first quarter of
2005, freenet has had to increase its marketing expenditure by app.
50% to €13.0 million to defend its position and gain 75 thousand
broadband customers in the first quarter of 2006. This increase takes
the total number of the Group's broadband customers to 775 thousand
compared with 465 thousand in the first quarter of 2005. In terms of
sales freenet reported a substantial increase of more than 38% to
€196.6 million. Gross earnings were €73.0 million which is on a par
with the same quarter of the previous year. The EBITDA decreased as a
result of the expenses incurred by the customer acquisition
activities, dropping to €27.1 million (Q1/2005: €36.8 million); EBIT
also went down from €27.5 million to €18.9 million.

Key operating figures for the mobilcom Group in quarterly comparison:
Accounting method: IFRS

+------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Q1/2006 | Q1/2005 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Employees | 3,594 | 3,429 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Turnover in €m | 522.0 | 450.6 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Service provider | 325.4 | 308.9 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Fixed line/Internet | 196.6 | 141.7 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Gross earnings | 112.4 | 124.3 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Service provider | 39.4 | 52.4 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Fixed line/Internet | 73.0 | 73.6 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| EBITDA in €m | 38.1 | 57.2 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Service provider | 11.0 | 20.3 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Fixed line/Internet | 27.1 | 36.8 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| EBIT in €m | 27.0 | 44.1 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Service provider | 8.1 | 16.6 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Fixed line/Internet | 18.9 | 27.5 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Group result in €m | 18.0 | 28.3 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Result/share in € | 0.19 | 0.32 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| Mobile telephony customers in millions | 5.00 | 4.51 |
|----------------------------------------+---------+---------|
| DSL customers in thousands | 775 | 465 |
+------------------------------------------------------------+

--- End of Ad-hoc Message ---
WKN: 662240; ISIN: DE0006622400; Index: CDAX, HDAX, Prime All Share,
TecDAX, TECH All Share, MIDCAP;
Listed: Prime Standard in Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse, Freiverkehr in
Börse Berlin Bremen,
Freiverkehr in Börse Düsseldorf, Freiverkehr in Hanseatische
Wertpapierbörse zu Hamburg,
Freiverkehr in Niedersächsische Börse zu Hannover, Freiverkehr in
Bayerische Börse München,
Freiverkehr in Börse Stuttgart, Geregelter Markt in Frankfurter
Wertpapierbörse;
Related Links: MobilCom AG
Author:
Hugin
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