Eir paid out dividends of €1.85bn since French billionaire takeover

Telecoms company Eir paid €118 million in dividends in the three months to June to a holding company owned by its main shareholders, French billionaire Xavier Niel and two New York hedge funds.

It brings total shareholder payouts to €1.85 billion since two companies controlled by Mr Niel acquired 64.5 per cent of the group in April 2018, in a deal that put an equity value on the business at €1 billion.

The remainder of Eir is owned by hedge funds Anchorage and Davidson Kempner, which sold part of their existing holdings as Mr Niel’s NJJ investment vehicle and his Iliad telecoms business took the controlling stake.

Some €400 million of Eir dividends were used in 2019 to redeem loan notes that Anchorage and Davidson Kempner had received as part-payment for shares the previous year. Much of the dividend payments in recent years have been supported by asset sales.

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The latest payout was disclosed in documents published on Tuesday, as Eir reported increased revenue for the second quarter and a drop-off in complaints to do with its fixed-line and mobile operations.

The telco said revenue rose by €22 million to €318 million for the three-month period to the end of June, compared to the same period last year.

The company, which described the results as “in line with expectations”, said its fibre broadband customer base increased by 2 per cent year on year to 852,000, while its postpay mobile base increased by 11 per cent to 1,041,000 customers.

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Eir said its fibre to the home roll-out was continuing “at pace” and it remains on track to deliver high-speed broadband to 1.9 million premises, or 84 per cent of homes and businesses in the Republic, by 2026.

“Behind these numbers, there is a continuous drive to deliver a step-change in our customer care,” chief executive, Oliver Loomes, said, noting the latest ComReg Consumer Line statistics report showed that Eir’s fixed-line complaints dropped 28 per cent and mobile complaints dropped 20 per cent since the last report.

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“Eir now has more than one million customers in our postpay mobile base, connects 852,000 homes and businesses to fibre broadband and brings ultra-fast 5G to 567 towns and cities across Ireland,” he said, describing the results as solid.

Total borrowings at the holding company behind Eir, Eircom Holdings (Ireland) Limited, stood at €2.81 billion at the end of June, down from €2.95 billion a year earlier.