French telecommunications group Iliad reported a record revenue of EUR 2.04 billion, up 4.3 percent on a year earlier, thanks to dynamic growth by Free and the dilutive impact of Alice, acquired previously from Telecom Italia. Iliad also saw a 40 percent EBITDA margin in 2010, up by 1.1 points on 2009, thanks to continued unbundling and cost controls. The company, whose biggest subsidiary is triple-play operator and mobile licence holder Free, increased its net profit by 78 percent to EUR 313 million. Last year, Iliad completed its integration of ISP Alice, which contributed EUR 83 million to group EBITDA. The group had 4.53 million broadband customers at the end of 2010, compared with 4.46 million a year earlier, including 3.97 million at Free (up from 3.78 mln) and 565,000 at Alice (down from 678,000). Some 89.2 percent of Iliad's broadband customers were served by unbundled switches in 2010, up from 85.4 percent in 2009. Iliad recently signed a major 2G/3G roaming deal with Orange for its Free Mobile service, set to launch at the start of 2012. Free Mobile aims to cover 27 percent of the French population with its own network before launch, giving it immediate access to Orange's national base stations for 3G. Iliad aims to have around 100,000 FTTH subscribers by the end of 2011 and a 24-25 percent broadband market share in the long-term. It confirmed its objective of connecting buildings with 4 million homes to its horizontal fibre network by the end of next year. Financial objectives include doubling revenues by 2015 thanks to the launch of mobile services and a cumulative ADSL free cash flow of over EUR 1.1 billion over three years (2010-2012), compared to a 33 percent increase to EUR 436 million in 2010. The group plans to pay a EUR 0.40 dividend for 2010, having paid EUR 0.37 per share in 2009.
