Hugin Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG: Interim report: mobilcom AG: mobilcom group with revenues of more than € 1.5 billion and strong subscriber growth in DSL and mobile

Wednesday, 08. November 2006 08:14



- mobilcom group: Revenue growth to € 1.52 billion
- Mobile Telephony Service Provider increases customers to 5.01
million
- freenet.de reports 905,000 DSL customers
- Merger has highest priority
- Group result 9 percent above previous year

Büdelsdorf, 8 November 2006. The mobilcom group continues to expand.
In the first nine months, mobilcom has boosted revenues by 2.2
percent to € 1.52 billion, despite falling prices in the mobile
telephony market and the fact that competition is becoming
increasingly fierce in the Fixed Network/Internet market. However,
gross profit in the group has declined by 8 percent to € 353.3
million due to various factors, including strong new customer
business at the Mobile Telephony Service Provider and growth costs in
the DSL area. The fact that the merger between mobilcom and freenet
has still not been completed is also having a negative impact on the
development in earnings. It has accordingly not been possible for any
merger related synergy to be realised so far, and the greater
viability of an integrated telecommunication company has not been
utilised. EBITDA in the first nine months of 2006 is reported as €
122.3 million. EBIT has declined to € 89.4 million. The third quarter
EBITDA of € 42.7m and EBT of € 36.3 m rose by 2.7 respectively more
just under 10 percent compared to the previous quarter. Consolidated
result for the first nine months amounted to € 75.7 million, and
improved by almost nine percent compared with the equivalent previous
year period. Earnings per share, which is an important parameter for
our shareholders, has also improved compared with the previous year
period, and is now stated as € 0.98 per share after the first nine
months of 2006. The development in strategically important liquidity
is particularly positive. Liquid assets in the group increased by €
112.4 million to € 517.9 million by the end of the third quarter of
2006.

Mobile Telephony Service Provider: Number of customers has attained
this year's target of five million
For the first time this year, the number of customers at the Mobile
Telephony Service Provider has exceeded the five million barrier; the
figure of 5.01 million customers has meant that the company has
attained its full-year target much sooner than originally
anticipated: "Even if nine-month revenues for 2006 of € 981.0 million
are at the level of the corresponding previous year figure (€ 990.1
million), we can be very proud of what we have achieved so far", says
Eckhard Spoerr, CEO of mobilcom AG. "Despite declining mobile prices
and revenues in we have succeeded in returning to a path of growth
and are nevertheless very profitable through growing our customer
base and increasing the quality of our new aquired customers". The
past twelve months, mobilcom increased its customer base by 360,000
customers and also succeeded in considerably slowing down the rapidly
declining average revenue per user (ARPU) by way of quality
improvements in new customer business and optimising tariff classes.
Whereas ARPU in the first and second quarters of this year were € 1.7
and € 1.8 respectively lower than the corresponding previous year
quarter, ARPU in the third quarter of 2006 is stated as € 17.6, and
is only € 1.3 lower than the corresponding previous year quarter. The
development in ARPU as well as the strong growth in gross new
customers are having a very positive impact on the development in
revenues in the third quarter of 2006. Compared with the previous
quarter, the Mobile Telephony Service Provider has considerably
boosted revenues by almost eight percent to € 340.2 million. EBITDA
has declined slightly compared with the previous quarter to € 20.2
million, which is attributable to the positive development in new
customers (+43,000 net new customers in Q3/2006 compared with -31,000
in Q2/2006) and stronger customer retention measures. EBIT is stated
as € 17.5 million in the third quarter, compared with € 18.4 million
in the previous quarter and € 19.2 million in the third quarter of
2005.

Fixed Network/Internet: 75,000 new DSL customers in Q3 2006

The Fixed Network/Internet segment which is managed by freenet.de AG
is also expanding again. After 55,000 new DSL customers in the
previous quarter, freenet succeeded in gaining a further 75,000 new
customers last quarter. Primarily as a result of seasonal effects and
particularly as a result of the change of the contract model with
Deutsche Telekom for new broadband customers, revenues in the third
quarter declined to € 167.1 million compared with the previous
quarters. However, margins for existing DSL customers will
accordingly improve, and this will have a positive impact or already
has had a positive impact on the corresponding gross profit margins.
Due to improved gross profit margins, results in the third quarter of
2006 have improved compared with the previous quarter. EBITDA has
accordingly improved by € 2.4 million to € 22.5 million. EBIT has
also increased, namely to € 15.0 million compared with € 11.6 million
in the previous quarter which is an increase by just under 30
percent.



Main parameters of the mobilcom group
period and quarterly comparison:
Accounting method: IFRS

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | 9M 2006 | 9M 2005 | Q3/2006 | Q3/2005 |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Employees | 3,603 | 3,585 | 3,603 | 3,585 |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Revenues in € | 1,524.6 | 1,492.0 | 507.4 | 531.8 |
| million | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Mobile Telephony | 981.0 | 990.1 | 340.2 | 348,2 |
| Service Provider | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Fixed | 543.6 | 501.8 | 167.1 | 183.6 |
| Network/Internet | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| EBITDA in € | 122.3 | 146.2/164.6* | 42.7 | 37.3/55.7* |
| million | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Mobile Telephony | 52.6 | 57.0/63.7* | 20.2 | 16.5/23.2* |
| Service Provider | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Fixed | 69.7 | 89.2/100.9* | 22.5 | 20.8/32.5* |
| Network/Internet | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| EBIT in € million | 89.4 | 104.9/123.3* | 32.5 | 24.2/42.6* |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Mobile Telephony | 44.0 | 45.8/52.5* | 17.5 | 12.5/19.2* |
| Service Provider | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Fixed | 45.5 | 59.0/70.7* | 15.0 | 11.7/23.4* |
| Network/Internet | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| EBT in € million | 99.2 | 110.8 | 36.3 | 26.4 |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Consolidated | | | | |
| result in € | 75.7 | 69.6 | 38.0 | 16.0 |
| million | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Earnings per | 0.98 | 0.82 | 0.53 | 0.20 |
| share in € | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Mobile telephony | | | | |
| customers in | 5.01 | 4.65 | 5.01 | 4.65 |
| million | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Thereof: Contract | | | | |
| customers in | 2.70 | 2.54 | 2.70 | 2.54 |
| million. | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| Thereof: Prepaid | | | | |
| customers in | 2.31 | 2.12 | 2.31 | 2.12 |
| million . | | | | |
|-------------------+---------+--------------+---------+------------|
| DSL customers in | 905 | 605 | 905 | 605 |
| '000 | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

* Adjusted by one-off costs of € 18.4 million (thereof € 6.7
million in the
Mobile Telephony Service Provider segment and € 11.7 million in
the Fixed Network/Internet segment)



Contact:
Patrick Möller
mobilcom Aktiengesellschaft
Public & Investor Relations

Telephone: +49 4331 69 1173
Telefax: +49 4331 69 1175
E-mail: ir@mobilcom.de



--- End of Ad-hoc Message ---
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Author:
Hugin
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