Bouygues Telecom on Thursday raised its full-year outlook after reporting stable revenue and a smaller operating loss for the first half of 2015.
In the first six months of 2015, Bouygues Telecom’s revenue dipped 1% year-on-year to €2.16 billion from €2.18 billion, while restated EBITDA increased to €323 million from €302 million. The company’s first half operating loss narrowed to €54 million from €71 million in 1H 2014.
"The relevance of Bouygues Telecom’s strategy enabled it to achieve a good commercial performance and improve its financial results," said a statement from parent company Bouygues.
The operator also reported solid customer additions across the business during the three months to 30 June.
Bouygues added 160,000 mobile customers, leaving it with 11.43 million overall, up from 11.02 million at the end of June 2014. Of that total, some 4.1 million are 4G customers, compared to approximately 1.8 million a year earlier.
On the fixed side, customers increased by 78,000 in Q2 to reach 2.6 million in total. The number of customers receiving connection speeds in excess of 30 Mbps was 398,000, up from 368,000 at the end of June 2014. Of that total, 23,000 subscribe to Bouygues’ fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service.
"Thanks to good commercial performance and tight control of marketing and operating costs, the outlook for Bouygues Telecom has been revised upwards," Bouygues said.
The company ex pects full year EBITDA at Bouygues Telecom of €750 million, having previously said it would be flat compared to 2014, when EBITDA came in at €694 million.
It also expects to comfortably exceed its 2016 savings target of €300 million.
Meanwhile, in a separate report this week by L’Express, it emerged that Bouygues Telecom has filed a lawsuit seeking €53 million in damages from Numericable-SFR for an alleged and unspecified breach of contract relating to the companies’ wholesale agreement dating back to 2009.
In addition to its own network, Bouygues Telecom uses fibre-to-the-last amplifier (FTTLa) networks owned by Numericable and its subsidiary Completel to provide high-speed fixed broadband.
A person familiar with the situation told L’Express that the lawsuit coincided with France’s competition regulator approving the terms of opening up Numericable-SFR’s cable network to rivals – a condition of its acquisition of mobile operator SFR.
"It is simply a way for Bouygues to lobby for lower prices," the unnamed source said.
