15th Nov 2016 07:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC on Tuesday said it turned to profit in the first half of its financial year, despite a decline in revenue.
The FTSE 250 broadband provider said it made a pretax profit of GBP30.0 million in the six months to September 30, compared to a GBP8.0 million loss a year prior, primarily due to lower one-off charges and cost savings achieved the year before.
Total revenue was GBP902.0 million, off 1.1% from the GBP912.0 million reported a year before. On-net revenue fell 3.9% to GBP670.0 million, though average revenue per user in the half was broadly flat year-on-year. Corporate revenue rose 11% to GBP208.0 million, however.
Total user additions in the half fell by a net 29,000, hit by lower retail users which was partially offset by growth for its wholesale business.
TalkTalk said it has seen a good start to the roll-out of its new fixed low-price plans, but the success of this will result in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the full year coming in at the low end of its GBP320.0 million to GBP360.0 million guidance.
"We have delivered an excellent uplift in first half profits and expect to deliver materially higher full year profits than last year. One year on from the cyber attack, we have maintained a relentless focus on looking after our existing customers and keeping up the pace across a wide range of operational improvements to make TalkTalk simpler and better for customers. As a result we have seen significant year-on-year improvements in churn and customer satisfaction," said Dido Harding, TalkTalk's chief executive.
TalkTalk declared a flat interim dividend of 5.29 pence per share.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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