Versatel Q2 revenue slips 13%

German fixed network operator Versatel Communications has reported its revenue for the three-month period ended 30 June 2011 dropped 12.9% year-on-year, mainly attributed to falling sales from its ‘mass market’ operating segment and the impact of lower mobile termination rates (MTRs) on the wholesale segment. Versatel said that its revenue fell from EUR181.2 million (USD257 million) in the second quarter of 2010 to EUR157.9 million twelve months later. Of that total, the majority – EUR60.8 million – was generated by the company’s newly created ‘mass market’ segment (comprising the former retail segment and around 16,000 small business customers supplied with similar retail products), a decrease of 18.5% compared to EUR74.7 million in Q2 2011. Versatel said the fall was partly due to a 11.1% drop in the number of mass market customers from 677,500 at the end of June 2010 to 602,600 twelve months later. Revenue generated by Versatel’s business segment (which now excludes SoHo and SME customers) totalled EUR50.3 million in 2Q 2011 (up 2.5% year-on-year), while the turnover from the wholesale business fell 18.7% year-on-year to EUR46.7 million, due to the drop in MTRs. The company reported that adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell from EUR42.7 million in the second quarter of 2010 to EUR37.4 million a year later, as the decline in the mass market segment could not be offset by cost savings, while the company’s net loss widened from EUR15.0 million to EUR16.7 million.