Technicolor (Thomson) releases FY 2009 Results

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
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PARIS — The Board of Directors of Technicolor (Euronext Paris 18453; NYSE: TCH) [formerly Thomson] met today to review the Group’s full year 2009 results.

4Q 2009 Group’s revenues from continuing activities amounted to €926 million, down 23.7% at constant currency compared to 4Q 2008, mainly due to a significant year-on-year drop in Connect volumes partly explained by a very strong fourth quarter 2008 with very high orders for Digital to Analog adaptors from one US cable operator.

Connect

Fourth quarter 2009 revenues for Connect remained impacted by the Group’s reduced ability to win major new access product contracts in 2009 due to its overall financial situation, but the group maintained in the fourth quarter 2009 its market positions in line with the previous quarter. Year-on-year volume decline in Digital Home Products resulted from:

  • Low orders for satellite set-top boxes in North America due to higher levels of refurbishment of previously deployed boxes; estimated market share in satellite was stable and the increased price pressure over the last quarter was partly offset by improved mix;
  • Market share loss with one European telecom operator, as previously reported in Q3 2009;
  • Strong decline in cable volumes, mostly due to the unfavorable comparison base against fourth quarter 2008 volumes which benefited from a very high level of orders for Digital to Analog adaptors from one US cable operator. Estimated market share in cable was stable and the increased price pressure over the last quarter was partly compensated by improved mix.

Fourth quarter 2009 revenues of the Software Service Platform business recovered their previous year level following three very weak quarters. This inflection in trend was mainly due to the positive performance of our Voice over IP platform.

Despite the substantial drop in second half 2009 revenues for Connect, the activity remained profitable over the period with a EUR 54 million adjusted EBITDA due to:

  • An improvement in mix, specifically in satellite set-top boxes;
  • A material decrease in costs of non-quality resulting from the launch in the third quarter 2009 of a program to overhaul portfolio management and development processes.

Access Products volumes (in million units):

            4Q 2008  4Q 2009
            -------  -------
Cable           3.5      1.7
Satellite       3.1      2.0
Telecom         3.4      2.6
   TOTAL       10.0      6.4

            H2 2008  H2 2009
            -------  -------
Cable           4.9      2.9
Satellite       5.5      3.7
Telecom         5.9      5.0
   TOTAL       16.4     11.6

            FY 2008  FY 2009
            -------  -------
Cable           7.5      5.6
Satellite      10.5      8.3
Telecom        11.1     10.9
   TOTAL       29.1     24.8

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