Eir reports growth in profits and subscriber numbers

Telecommunications company Eir has reported a 4 per cent increase in profits to €520 million for the full year to the end of June, as the company continues to build momentum ahead of an expected listing or sale, possibly next year.

Eir’s revenues declined slightly to €1.3 billion due to the effects of foreign exchange and the €16 million cost regulator-enforced changes to its network charges. When the total €20 million effect of this is stripped out, the company says its “underlying revenues” rose 1 per cent.

The company says its broadband connections rose by 5 per cent to 896,000, while its base of television subscribers rose by 17,000 to 71,000 customers. It has 551,000 customers signed up to broadband, a quarter of which it says are on so-called “triple play” services.

Its mobile division, which was rebranded from Meteor to Eir in recent weeks, has 1.06 million customers with just over half on ready-to-go arrangements.

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Continued cost-cutting at Eir reduced shaved €26 million off its cost base. The company continues to seek voluntary redundancies among its staff, and opened another leaving scheme in June.

Eir says it also saved €23 million in financing costs, as it continued to restructure its balance sheet through refinancing its most expensive debt.

The company has now passed €1.7 million homes with its fibre rollout, it says, and has also passed 80,000 out of 300,000 rural homes it is targeting with high-speed services outside of the State’s national broadband plan.

" Last week we rebranded our standalone mobile business from meteor to eir, which better supports our convergence strategy," said Richard Moat, the chief executive.

In a presentation to investors, Eir suggested that the market is moving to more complicated bundled packages.

Huib Costermans, the chief financial officer, said: “The group has delivered another solid operational and financial performance for the full year. The results achieved are in line with expectations and the guidance issued at the beginning of the financial year.”