French operator Iliad reported revenues up 2.6 percent to EUR 1.04 billion in the first half, compared to EUR 1.02 billion in the year-earlier period, despite a change in France's VAT regime. Its main triple-play brand, Free, reported 231,000 net additions in the period, giving it a 36 percent market share, a record for the company. The group had 4.72 million broadband subscribers at the end of June, of which 4.25 million were with Free and 472,000 were with Alice. It saw 44,000 migrations from Alice to Free during the period and reached a 90.8 percent unbundling rate, up on 81.2 percent a year earlier. Iliad increased its EBITDA by 6.3 percent to EUR 416.4 million in the first half, up from EUR 391.6 million, giving it a 40 percent EBITDA margin (up from 38.6%). The company attributed its EBITDA increase to a rise in gross profit due to the higher unbundling rate, increased revenues and the opening of over 250 new connection nodes in the first half, as well as sound management of its fixed cost base. Net profit contracted by 15.4 percent to EUR 145 million from EUR 171.4 million. Iliad faced higher expenditure, such as a EUR 242.7 million impact due to the payment of its 3G mobile licence, a 9 percent increase to EUR 102.9 million in FTTH-related capital expenditure, and a sharp rise in mobile-related capital expenditure. The group expects to report a negative consolidated free cash flow figure in the second half (versus a positive EUR 196 million in the first half) due to its planned capital expenditure programmes for ADSL, FTTH and mobile provision, as well as the payment of tax charges provisioned for next year. The group reaffirmed its financial objectives of achieving over EUR 1.1 billion in cumulative free cash flow from operations between 2010 and 2012 and to double group revenues by 2015.
