Tiscali turnover falls on the back of asset sales

Pan-European ISP Tiscali saw its first quarter EBITDA fall 23.1% compared to the final three months of 2004, a trend it blamed on a significant rise in marketing expenditure. EBITDA for the three months ending 31 March 2005 was EUR21.3 million, down from EUR27.7 million at end-2004, but up EUR7 million year-on-year; the company’s core operations in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, UK and the Czech Republic reported EBITDA of EUR25 million. Group turnover fell by EUR28 million to EUR239.7 million compared to the corresponding period of last year, following a series of assets sales. Tiscali has exited Denmark, South Africa and France since the start of the year. Tiscali signed up 150,000 new ADSL users in the period, bringing its total pro forma broadband base to 1.2 million, 235,000 of which took unbundled services. Net debt rose by EUR20 million over the quarter, to reach EUR381.7 million.