Irish multi-service operator (MSO) eir has published its financial results for the financial year ended 30 June 2018, posting a 2.2% year-on-year decline in turnover, despite which it managed to narrow its losses. In the twelve-month period under review the former monopoly generated revenues of EUR1.270 billion (USD1.47 billion), down from EUR1.299 billion in its previous fiscal year, with the drop attributed mainly to ‘the exit of low margin revenue with the eir business division coupled with mobile termination rate reductions’. Mobile services revenues for FY 2018 totalled EUR338 million, down from EUR341 million, with fixed line services revenue slipping from EUR993 million to EUR965 million, it said. Adjusted EBITDA was EUR528 million in the twelve months ended 30 June 2018, up marginally from the EUR520 million reported a year earlier, while eir saw an operating profit of EUR38 million, down from EUR43 million previously. Despite lower revenues, a reduction in financing costs helped eir improve its bottom line, with the company narrowing its net loss from EUR226 million to EUR59 million in the latest fiscal year. Meanwhile, total capital expenditure reached EUR319 million, up from EUR298 million.
As at end-June 2018 eir had a total of 923,000 broadband lines in service, up from 896,000 a year earlier, of which 450,000 are retail connections and the remainder wholesale. In the mobile arena, meanwhile, the company saw a marginal reduction in its userbase, with subscriber numbers declining by 1.3% on an annualised basis to 1.047 million.
In terms of its infrastructure, eir confirmed that its fibre network now passes more than 1.8 million Irish premises with fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technologies, with it noting that the latter was available to around 240,000 premises. It also confirmed that it now has approximately 96% 4G outdoor population coverage.