Altice France said that its telecom operations generated third-quarter revenues of EUR 2.64 billion, down 1 percent year-on-year (+4.1% in Q2). Performance was impacted by a contraction in the division grouping B2B and wholesale telecom activities, which saw revenues decline 9.4 percent to EUR 864 million. This drop reflected a slowdown in the FTTP deployment pace at infrastructure venture Xp Fibre, with 159,000 premises passed in the quarter compared with 270,000 in the year-earlier period.
In the residential market, service revenues increased 4.4 percent to EUR 1.61 billion (+4.6% in Q2), of which EUR 922 million were generated in the mobile segment (+3.7% from +3.2% in Q2) and EUR 685 million from fixed services (+5.2% from +6.5% in Q2). Growth in B2C equipment sales turned negative (-3.3%), after bouncing back in the previous quarter (+15.1%).
EBITDA from telecom activities amounted to EUR 1.04 billion, up 0.3 percent year-on-year (+2.5% in Q2), while accrued capex decreased by 5.5 percent to EUR 557 million (+14.9% in Q2). As a result, operating free cash flow (EBITDA less capex) progressed by 7.9 percent to EUR 479 million, rising to EUR 486 million across the group’s telecom and media arms (+8.4% from -2.1% in Q2).
As part of the financial release, Altice France confirmed that it now owns MVNO Prixtel. While this acquisition had not been previously announced, news of the deal had emerged in the press during September. The group closed the quarter with 18.63 million mobile connections (excluding M2M), of which 390,000 were under the Prixtel brand. This compares with 18.16 million reported at end-June.
The 5G roll-out continued to progress, with approximately 2,100 French municipalities covered by SFR at end-September, while LTE availability reached 99.7 percent of the population.
Fixed subscribers increased slightly to 6.71 million, compared to 6.70 million at end-June. Out of this total, fibre-based lines rose by 128,000 in the quarter to reach 3.81 million (including 4G Box customers), across a marketable footprint of 24.34 million premises eligible for the operator's FTTP and hybrid fibre-coaxial services.
In addition to the recent acquisitions of MVNOs Prixtel and Afone, Altice France is currently waiting for regulatory approval to buy rival Coriolis, an independent telecom group with more than 500,000 customers. The operation should be finalised during H1 2022.
