EE, the UK’s leading mobile network operator in terms of subscribers, has published its financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2014, revealing that its adjusted EBITDA margin had improved on the back of continued post-paid subscriber growth and cost savings.
In the first half of 2014 EE generated a total turnover of GBP3.114 billion (USD5.29 billion), representing a 3.0% decline from the corresponding period a year earlier, while operating revenue totalled GBP2.991 billion, down 1.3% year-on-year. However, the operator was keen to note that operating revenue for the first six months of 2014 was stable (up 0.1% y-o-y) when excluding regulatory impact. Adjusted EBITDA in H1 2014 stood at GBP760 million, meanwhile, representing a 1.9% increase year-on-year, while adjusted EBITDA margin was 24.4%, up by 1.2 percentage points over the year. In addition, it registered a 6.7% y-o-y reduction in its indirect cost base in the period under review.
In operational terms, at the end of June 2014 EE reported total network connections of 30.804 million, the bulk of which were mobile. While the cellco’s own mobile subscriber base fell marginally to around 24.519 million (from approximately 24.572 million a year earlier), EE continued to record solid uptake for its 4G services. At the end of the reporting period the cellco had 4.183 million customers signed up to its LTE-based offerings, up from 687,000 a year earlier, and said it was on track to exceed six million such subscribers by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, it also pointed out improvements in post-paid customer retention, with churn falling to 1.1%, and marking the operators 13th consecutive quarter at 1.2% or below. In the fixed line arena, meanwhile, broadband accesses totalled 775,000 at end-June 2014, up from 704,000 a year earlier.
Commenting on the performance, EE’s chief executive officer Olaf Swantee said: ‘Today’s results demonstrate that consumers and businesses are responding to our strategy to provide the UK’s biggest, fastest and most reliable network. We are delivering on our goals to rapidly transition our pay monthly customer base to 4G, generate significant merger cost savings and improve our EBITDA margin performance.’