PARIS: Portugal Telecom provided a welcome boost to Altice’s third quarter financials as it returned to revenue growth in September, the first time it has done so since 2008.
The Portuguese operator saw Q3 sales hit €584.4 million, the same as 12 months ago, but an improvement on the 3.5 percent and three percent falls in the first two quarters.
This performance pushed Altice to record total revenues of €5.9 billion, again flat versus the same period last year. Across all of Altice’s operations, gains in fixed line services cancelled out falls in mobile and wholesales offerings.
Sales in France, its principal market, fell 2.4 percent to €2.8 billion. Adjusted Group EBITDA rose 8.3 percent to €2.3 billion, led by the companies businesses in the US.
Following changes in September, which saw Altice announce plans to centralise a range of functions and launch new content businesses, CEO Michel Combes (pictured) claimed the company had “fully transformed” into a transatlantic, converged telecoms and media company.
“We are extremely pleased to see our focus on execution is paying off, delivering substantially better revenue and financial performance across all our major markets including US, France and Portugal,” Combes said.
“The efficiency savings we are achieving are fueling higher investment in infrastructure and content, and improving customer experience, which is now driving the growth of our business.”
