Bouygues Telecom reported revenue of EUR 1.22 billion for the three months to March, with annual growth progressing to 8 percent on a like-for-like basis, from 6 percent in the previous quarter. Net profit improved significantly to EUR 18 million, compared with a loss of EUR 40 million a year earlier, despite an increase in capital expenditure (EUR 309 million gross, from EUR 247 million in Q1 2016). The company confirmed its 25 percent EBITDA margin target for 2017, after posting a 23.4 percent margin in the first quarter (+8.4 percentage points over the year).
Postpaid subscriptions (excluding M2M) continued to progress at a solid pace, recording 130,000 net additions since December, although less strong than in the previous quarter (+228,000). Blended mobile ARPU stood at EUR 22.50, marginally lower sequentially (from EUR 22.70 in Q4 2016) but slightly higher than a year earlier (EUR 22.40). The roll-out of LTE continued to progress, with 88 percent of the population covered at end-March. The LTE footprint is expected to reach 92 percent by the end of the year and 99 percent in 2018.
The operator is also investing in the deployment of Fibre-To-The-Antenna (FTTA), which should be completed by 2019 in densely populated areas, while advancing in other parts of the country. In the fixed market, it continued to expand the availability of FTTH services, which were marketed to an additional 200,000 premises since December, bringing the overall footprint to 2.2 million. This number is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, as Bouygues signs and extends agreements with infrastructure providers, targeting 12 million marketable premises by 2019 and 20 million by 2020.
Fixed broadband subscriptions increased by 88,000 since December, compared with 98,000 in the previous quarter, bringing the customer base to 3.2 million at end-March (including 144,000 FTTH connections). FTTH net additions accounted for 26 percent of quarterly net growth and two-thirds of new FTTH customers were new to the business, said Bouygues. Fixed broadband ARPU decreased to EUR 26.70, from EUR 27.70 reported in both Q1 2016 and Q4 2016.
