United Internet posts 15.3% rise in H1 2012 sales

United Internet, which provides internet access under the brand name 1&1, has reported consolidated revenue of EUR1.164 billion (USD1.4 billion) in the six months ended 30 June 2012, an increase of 15.3% from EUR1.009 billion in the year-ago period. The company’s internet access segment saw sales rise 16.3% from EUR657.2 million in the first half of 2011 to EUR764 million in the same period of 2012, driven by a rise in the number of fee-based customer contracts by 300,000 during the six-month period to 4.38 million at 30 June 2012, due mainly to strong demand for 1&1 mobile internet products. Of the total customer contracts, 2.61 million were DSL subscribers on ‘complete’ packages (up from 2.51 million at the start of the year), 1.06 million were mobile internet users (790,000) and the remaining 710,000 were narrowband and T-DSL/R-DSL subscribers (down from 780,000). The access segment reported a 35.0% year-on-year rise in EBITDA to EUR88.4 million in the first half of 2012 and a 47.1% increase in EBIT to EUR75.0 million, despite a significant increase in costs for new customer acquisition.