UPDATE: Belgacom Profit Hit By Pricing Cap, But Revenue Rises
29 Ottobre 2010 - 9:41AM
Dow Jones News
Belgacom SA (BELG.BT), Belgium's biggest telecommunications
company, Friday said net profit fell 7.9% in the third quarter, hit
by new Europe-wide rules capping the prices it can charge
customers.
Net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 slipped to EUR199
million, from EUR216 million a year earlier. But revenue held up
well, rising 11% to EUR1.64 billion from EUR1.48 billion a year
earlier. The company proposed a gross interim dividend of EUR0.50 a
share.
"This is a remarkable performance, given that our business was
strongly affected by regulatory measures in the third quarter,"
said Chief Executive Didier Bellensin a statement.
He said the strong revenue growth was driven by the full
consolidation of its international carrier business, and increased
sales of multi-play packs which offer customers several
services.
Belgacom, which is majority-owned by the Belgian state, last
year merged its international carrier services business with that
of MTN Group Ltd. (MTN.JO), a telecoms group operating in Africa
and the Middle East.
Stripping out the effects of the MTN acquisition, Belgacom said
revenue for the first nine months of the year dropped just 0.3% to
EUR4.46 billion, despite a EUR75 million shortfall from the cost of
the new European cap on prices.
The cost was offset by solid growth in businesses like Belgacom
TV where customer numbers grew 39% to 920,000, he said. Sales of
multi-play packs combining TV, Internet and telephone also jumped
78% year on year to 807,000 and the new trend in smart phones
powered a 58% rise in mobile Internet customers and an increase in
data downloads.
This was despite strong competition from small but fast-growing
Flemish cable operator Telenet NV (TNET.BT) and Mobistar NV
(MOBB.BT), owned by France Telecom (FTE) which was traditionally a
mobile company but has widened its scope to include TV and
Internet, offering multi-play packs of its own.
-By Carolyn Henson, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1 480;
carolyn.henson@dowjones.com
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