Ireland’s eir has published its financial results for both the quarter and the year ended 30 June 2021, recording what it called ‘strong, improving results in line with expectations’ for the closing three months of its most recent fiscal year.
For the three-month period under review eir reported revenue totalling EUR331 million (USD392 million), up 10% year-on-year, with the company saying growth from post-paid mobile, fixed broadband and data services had been partly offset by ‘reduced traditional access, traffic, content and UK revenues’. Of the revenue total in Q4 FY21, the lion’s share – EUR241 million, up from EUR227 million – was generated by eir’s fixed operations, while turnover from mobile services increased to EUR98 million, from EUR82 million in the corresponding period a year earlier. Revenues in the full year period were, however, down by 1%, standing at EUR1.20 billion.
With regards to other key financial indicators, eir reported EBITDA of EUR181 million in Q4 FY21, representing an annualised increase of 13%, while full year adjusted EBITDA totalled EUR656 million, up 3%, with growth in the year said to have been driven by continued operating cost savings. Meanwhile, eir reported a net profit of EUR20 million for the closing three months of its financial year, reversing the loss of EUR25 million in Q4 FY20, while full year net profit rose substantially, from EUR22 million to EUR286 million.
In terms of operational indicators, eir reported a broadband subscriber base totalling 970,000 as of 30 June 2021, up marginally from 962,000 a year earlier, of which 447,000 were retail lines (Jun-20: 459,000). The operator also issued an update on the progress of its fibre rollout, confirming that as of mid-2021 a total of 1.9 million premises had been passed with a combination of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technologies, with the latter of those reaching 675,000 homes and businesses at the end of the reporting period, up from 494,000 at mid-2020.
In the mobile sector, meanwhile, eir said it was serving a subscriber base totalling 1.192 million as of 30 June 2021, up from 1.156 million a year earlier, with post-paid accesses increasing by 10% year-on-year to reach 850,000. The operator’s 5G network rollout was said to be continuing ‘at pace’, with it confirming that the next generation of mobile broadband technology had been made available in 320 towns and cities via 1,010 cell sites as of mid-2021, with it claiming 5G coverage of ‘over 68%’ of the population.