Versatel revenue down 13% on lower wholesale, mass market sales

German fixed network operator Versatel Communications has announced it generated revenue of EUR631.2 million (USD833 million) for the year ended 31 December 2011, down 12.9% from EUR724.7 million in 2010. The company attributed the drop to a 20.1% year-on-year fall in sales from its wholesale segment to EUR189.6 million, due to a reduction in mobile termination rates (MTRs), as well as one-off revenues of EUR8 million from long-term finance leases recognised in 2010. In addition, the ‘mass market’ operating segment (comprising the former retail segment and around 16,000 small business customers supplied with similar retail products) continued to decline as expected, with sales dropping 18.1% from EUR289.8 million in 2010 to EUR237.5 million twelve months later, partly due to a drop in the number of mass market customers to 563,100 at the end of December 2011, from 642,800 one year earlier. The sale of Versatel’s cable business as of 31 July 2010 also contributed revenues of EUR8.3 million in 2010. A 3.3% rise in revenue from the business segment (which now excludes SoHo and SME customers) to EUR204.1 million failed to offset declining sales in the wholesale and mass market segments. Meanwhile, the company reported that adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 12% during 2011 to EUR150.5 million, due to the decline in revenues in the mass market segment and lower data revenues in the wholesale segment, while the net loss narrowed from EUR122.0 million in full year 2010 to EU48.1 million twelve months later.