Tele Columbus boosted by take-up of bundles

Strong take-up of bundled offerings and growth in broadband subscribers boosted German cable operator Tele Columbus’s Q1 performance, with bundled offerings attracting new broadband and telephony customers.

Overall, Tele Columbus had 3.6 million connected homes and 2.4 million customers at the end of March. Cable TV revenue-generating units numbered 2.4 million.

Internet customers growing by 15,000 to reach 430,000, and Tele Columbus also saw strong take up of its telephony offering in the first quarter, adding 18,000 customers to take the telephony total to 513,000.

The number of RGUs per subscribers increased from 1.56 a year ago to 1.62, while blended ARPU rose by 6.9% year on year to €17.

Tele Columbus said the launch of its new advanceTV service had been promising, without revealing further details.

The operator posted revenues of €121 million for the quarter, up 4.3% year-on-year, and EBITDA of €61.1 million, up 8.2%.

Tele Columbus is currently working on the development of a new brand that will unify its separate operating units following its acquisition of Primacom and Pepcom. The new brand will be launched in the autumn.

The operator confirmed earlier guidance for the full year, with homes connected expected to remain stable and revenue expected to see single-digit growth. EBITDA is expected to grow by 10%, while capex will account for between 33% and 35% of revenues.

“Despite the ongoing integration of Primacom and Pepcom, the currently running migration of our systems as well as the recently launched rebranding project, our day to day business is running very smoothly. Therefore, I am very pleased that we ended the first quarter with increasing revenues and disproportionate Normalised EBITDA growth year on year,” said Ronny Verhelst, CEO of Tele Columbus Group.

“The successful results show that we are very well on track setting up the company as a strong new attacker in the market to take advantage of the numerous chances in our industry.”