News
T-Mobile US posts strong set of third quarter financials, including 5% adjusted EBITDA growth and 1.3 million net customer additions
The merger announcement the industry is waiting for could come on Wednesday when Sprint reports its fiscal second quarter numbers, but given the telco’s decision not to host its usual conference call, we could be kept in suspense for longer.
Industry watchers have accepted that merger plans between Sprint and T-Mobile US are an open secret, but the timing of an announcement remains cause for speculation.
There has been talk in recent months that the telcos would detail their plans whenever the first of them presented quarterly financials, but T-Mobile US shared its Q3 figures on Monday, without hosting its usual analyst call – it posted a solid set of results, incidentally – while Sprint has finally set the date for its Q2, but said that it too will skip the conference call this time.
That could suggest that the final details of the merger have yet to be finalised and as such the telcos are unable to talk yet. But Sprint has given a slight hint that it might announce more than purely financial figures on Wednesday.
The results will include "a message from management," the telco said on Monday.
Tantalising…
T-Mobile US gave no suggestion of any merger plan when it published its Q3 numbers, talked up by CEO John Legere as a quarter of "record service revenues, record free cash flow, record Q3 adjusted EBITDA – and that’s on top of 18 quarters in a row with more than one million customers added."
The operator recorded 1.3 million net additions in the three months to the end of September, including 817,000 branded postpaid net adds and 595,000 branded postpaid phone net additions.
As a result, it raised its guidance to 3.3 million-3.6 million net postpaid customers additions for the full year, having previously predicted a wider range of 3 million-3.6 million.
It also raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA target to US$10.8 billion-$11 billion from $10.5 billion-$10.9 billion.
The operator posted adjusted EBITDA of $2.8 billion in Q3, up 5% year-on-year, primarily as a result of higher service revenues and lower losses on equipment.
Revenues came in at $10 billion, up 8% on the year-ago quarter, while service revenues of $7.6 billion showed 7% growth.
Net income grew by 50% to $550 million.
