Netherlands-based multinational telecoms group Altice Europe has reported consolidated revenues of EUR3.540 billion (USD4.1 billion) for the three months ended 30 June 2020, down 1.2% year-on-year from EUR3.583 billion in 2Q19. The company’s main operation in France accounted for the bulk of it, reporting revenues of EUR2.595 billion (up 0.2% y-o-y) in 2Q20, while Portugal and the Dominican Republic saw annual revenue decreases of 4.2% (to EUR5499.5 million) and 16.1% (EUR117.9 million) respectively in the period under review; Altice also reported significant revenue decline at its Teads (24.3%) unit. Adjusted EBITDA, meanwhile, grew from EUR1.436 billion to EUR1.439 billion in the period under review, representing a 0.2% annual improvement. Accrued CAPEX decreased to EUR662.9 million in 2Q20 (EUR755.7 million in the year-ago period).
In operational terms, Altice Europe ended June with a total of 25.897 million mobile B2C subscribers across France (including the French Overseas Territories [FOT]), Portugal, Israel and the Dominican Republic, alongside 9.378 million unique fixed line B2C customers. France remains Altice’s leading market in terms of subscribers, with 15.877 million mobile B2C users and 6.401 million fixed B2C accounts. In Portugal, the company had 5.978 million mobile B2C and 1.606 million fixed B2C subscribers, while the Israel unit ended the quarter with 1.346 million (mobile B2C) and 1.036 million (fixed B2C) subscribers. The Dominican Republic, meanwhile, had 2.697 million mobile B2C subscriptions on its books and 335,000 fixed B2C customers at the end of June 2020.
Patrick Drahi, founder of Altice Europe, commented: ‘In France, we have maintained growth in our core telecom business in the second quarter year over year, including residential service revenue growth once again. We ended the second quarter with a strong performance and improved trajectory, despite COVID-19 related impacts on areas such as roaming revenue, low margin equipment sales and a significant slowdown in the wider media business. In the second quarter of 2020, we closed the transformational Fastfiber partnership in Portugal and extended the Altice Corporate Finance facility, meaning that almost EUR500 million of the EUR700 million targeted interest savings programme have been realised … Overall, we have achieved a strong performance in the second quarter, especially given the wider circumstances. We reiterate our FY2020 guidance and continue to focus on deleveraging through growing revenue, EBITDA and cash flow.’