Neuf Cegetel: double-digit organic growth in the fourth quarter

PARIS — Neuf Cegetel has reported its (unaudited) revenue figures for the fourth quarter showing:

• Total revenue growth of 20% to €911 million. Slightly over 10 points of this increase came from organic growth, with the remainder reflecting the impact of the acquisitions of AOL and Club Internet.
• The strong momentum of the Mass Market (growth of 64%, including organic growth of 27%) and Enterprises (growth of 8%) divisions.
• In the Mass Market division: the further rapid growth in the broadband client base to 3,224,000 at 31 December, and in broadband ARPU, which stood at over €36 excluding taxes over the quarter as a whole (versus €35 expected).
• In the Enterprises division: the success of the data offers, with 173,000 sites connected at 31 December; close to 40% of new links being installed are now for voice over IP.

The increase of over €4 excluding taxes in broadband ARPU compared with the fourth quarter of 2006 was also for a part attributable to the innovation policy pursued by the Group. During the second half of 2007, the Group successfully launched two new services. By the end of December, Neuf Music, the Group’s unlimited legal music download service, had generated 5 million downloads. Less than four months after their launch, the generalist Neuf TV Sélection and Neuf TV Grand Spectacle pay-TV packages, which are available for a monthly fee starting from €10.90 including taxes per month, had won around 10% of the eligible clients (Neuf Cegetel had more than 750,000 TV subscribers at year-end 2007).