21st Sep 2006 07:00
CABLE & WIRELESS INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS UPDATE Cable and Wireless plc (Cable & Wireless) is today (21 September 2006) hostingan event for analysts and investors to update them on its Internationalbusiness unit.Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Chairman of Cable & Wireless International, willintroduce the event. * Harris Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Cable & Wireless International, will provide the background and strategic positioning of International. As part of his presentation, Harris will highlight the following targets for the International business: * + EBITDA margin rising from approximately 34% in 2005-06 to between 35% and 37% by the financial year 2008-09; and + Increasing cash repatriation to 100% in 2006-07, up from 92% in the financial year to 31 March 2006. Following this, presentations will be given by: * Chris Hetherington, Chief Executive for the Americas and Caribbean, Cable & Wireless, who will cover the turnaround in Panama and growth prospects in the Caribbean region. Included in his presentation will be financial information for the Panama, North and East Caribbean and Barbados regions, as well as details of revenue growth and cost cutting opportunities. * Rodney Davis, President, Cable & Wireless Jamaica, who will outline the actions taken to return the Jamaican business to its growth path. Highlights of his presentation will be the recent change in strategy to facilitate the "Jamaica turnaround", the implementation of that strategy and some of its successes. * Richard Dodd, Chief Executive of Monaco and Islands and Director of Business Development, Cable & Wireless International, who will cover the developments in mobile in Jersey and the Isle of Man - as well as progress in Monaco Telecom and its associates. His presentation will highlight the development of the Channel Islands cluster and the significance of the acquisition of Guernsey Telecom in 2002. In addition, progress in Monaco Telecom will be featured, giving details of plans for the introduction of "quadruple play", as well as moving the mobile operation from service provider to mobile network operator. * Phil Green, Chief Executive of CTM (Macau) and the Pacific Islands, who will highlight the rapidly developing economy in Macau and the associated benefits for the International business. His presentation will provide background on the drivers stimulating economic growth in Macau and our investment plans, which are designed to capture an increasing share of the local telecoms market whilst supporting the local economy. The presentations will include details of customer numbers, market shares andfinancials for the eight regions (Panama, North Caribbean, East Caribbean,Barbados, Jamaica, Macau, Monaco and Islands) as at 31 March 2006.Other members of the Cable & Wireless International senior management team(Jonty Jankovich, Chief Financial Officer; Frank Mount, Chief TechnologyOfficer and Ian Muir, Acting Director of Human Resources) will also be inattendance and available for the question and answer session.Harris Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Cable & Wireless International, said:"Our International business is a portfolio of exciting, growth-oriented assets.We are now well placed, not just to meet the competition in our markets, but tobeat it. We can do that by focusing on what really matters - a superiorcustomer experience. We believe that the opportunities we, as a team, haveidentified and are exploiting will support our EBITDA and cash targets to thebenefit of our customers, colleagues and shareholders."The presentations will start promptly at 9.30 am UK time.The event will be webcast live on cw.com from 9.30 am. You can access thewebcast at www.cw.com. An on-demand version of the webcast will be availablefrom Friday 22 September.For further information:Investor RelationsAshley Rayfield Director, Investor Relations +44 (0)20 7315 4460 MediaClare Waters Director, External Affairs +44 (0)20 7315 4088 Antonia Graham Head of Corporate and UK PR +44 (0)7803 724 111 Press Office Cable & Wireless +44 (0)1344 818 888 Rollo Head Finsbury +44 (0)20 7251 3801 James Wyatt-Tilby Finsbury +44 (0)20 7251 3801 About Cable & WirelessCable & Wireless is one of the world's leading international communicationscompanies. It operates through two standalone business units - Internationaland UK.The International business unit operates integrated telecommunicationscompanies in 34 countries offering mobile, broadband, domestic andinternational fixed line services to residential and business customers withprincipal operations in the Caribbean, Panama, Macau, Monaco and the ChannelIslands.The UK business unit provides enterprise and carrier solutions to the largestusers of telecoms services across the UK, US, continental Europe and Asia, andwholesale broadband services in the UK.For more information about Cable & Wireless, please visit www.cw.com .Forward-looking statementsThis announcement contains forward-looking statements that are based on ourcurrent expectations or beliefs, as well as assumptions about future events.These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do notrelate only to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements oftenuse words such as anticipate, target, expect, estimate, intend, plan, goal,believe, will, may, should, would, could or other words of similar meaning.Undue reliance should not be placed on any such statements because, by theirvery nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties andcan be affected by other factors that could cause actual results, and Cable &Wireless' plans and objectives, to differ materially from those expressed orimplied in the forward-looking statements.There are several factors which could cause actual results to differ materiallyfrom those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements, including:changes in the global, political, economic, business, competitive, market andregulatory forces, changes in communication and information technology, futureexchange and interest rates, changes in tax rates and future businesscombinations or dispositions.Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Cable &Wireless undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-lookingstatement contained in this announcement, regardless of whether thosestatements are affected as a result of new information, future events orotherwise.No statement in this announcement is intended to be a profit forecast and nostatement in this announcement should be interpreted to mean that earnings pershare for Cable & Wireless for the current or future financial year wouldnecessarily match or exceed the historical published earnings per share ofCable & Wireless.ENDCable & Wireless PLCRelated Shares:
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