Eircom announced that its examiner has turned down a takeover offer for the Irish operator. Given the level of the offer and its conditionality, the examiner has decided not to proceed, Eircom said. Its committee of first lenders also supported the move, suggesting it undervalued the company. Separately, Eircom announced the filing of its 2010/2011 financial year results for the three companies currently protected by the court under examinership. Revenue for the main trading company, Eircom Limited fell to EUR 1.689 billion for the year, down 8 percent on the previous year. EBITDA closed at EUR 647 million, down 4 percent on the previous year. The company finished the financial year with EUR 459 million in cash. Total access lines excluding DSL stood at 1.738 million at year-end, while retail and wholesale DSL totaled 671,000. Meteor had a total 1.031 million mobile customers at the end of June 2011. As a result of events since the end of the fiscal year, the company has been obliged to recognise a provision of EUR 2.5 billion for guarantees given by the Eircom Group on debt under the ERCIH Group's senior credit facility. In addition, an impairment review of the Meteor mobile business was carried out, resulting in a writedown of EUR 370 million. The non-cash charges resulted in an operating loss of EUR 2.86 billion for the year. The company said the examiner hopes to complete the restructuring process by the end of May.
