United Internet, a provider of broadband and telephony services in Germany under the brand 1&1, has reported a 14.4% increase in consolidated sales to EUR2.397 billion (USD3.09 billion) in the twelve months ended 31 December 2012 from EUR2.094 billion the previous year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) totalled EUR325.9 million in 2012, down 4.7% year-on-year. The company’s ‘Access’ segment saw sales jump 15.9% year-on-year to EUR1.586 million for full year 2012, with growth mainly driven by a rise in the number of fee-based customer contracts from 4.08 million at the end of 2011 to 4.75 million twelve months later, due mainly to strong demand for 1&1 mobile internet products. Of that total, 2.79 million were DSL subscribers on ‘complete’ packages (up from 2.51 million a year earlier), 1.35 million were mobile internet users (790,000) and the remaining 610,000 were narrowband and T-DSL/R-DSL subscribers (down from 780,000). The access segment reported a 25.9% year-on-year rise in EBITDA from EUR152.3 million in 2011 to EUR191.8 million the following year, and posted a 34.5% increase in EBIT to EUR164.3 million.
Commenting on the results, CEO Ralph Dommermuth said: ‘United Internet can look back on a very successful 2012. We achieved our ambitious targets with strong growth in customers and sales, as well as in the results of our established business fields. And thanks to this encouraging progress, we were able to widen the base for our future growth by investing in the company’s new business fields in 2012.’ United Internet forecasts sales growth of approximately 10% for 2013, while EBITDA from established business fields is expected to improve to around EUR500 million. Around 20% of this figure is to be used to finance start-up losses from the further expansion of new business fields.