Swisscom - more customers, profitable growth

The 2007 financial year was characterised by growth in customer numbers, the acquisition of Fastweb and exceptional items: Revenue rose by 14.9% to CHF 11.1 billion, while operating income before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was 18.9 per cent higher at CHF 4.5 billion. This increase is primarily attributable to the acquisition of Fastweb in May 2007. The comparable net revenue increased by 0.3% over the previous year.

Number of Fixnet and Mobile customers continues to grow

Fixnet posted a year-on-year decline of 3.6% in revenue from external customers to CHF 3861 million in 2007. The drop in the number of fixed lines and traffic revenues as a result of price reductions, substitution by mobile phones as well as competition with cable network and alternative providers was only partially compensated by further strong growth in broadband connections and TV offerings. The number of fixed lines, including broadband access lines, increased by 3.4% to 5.29 million. Broadband communications experienced strong growth year-on-year, with the number of broadband customers rising by 17.1% to 1.6 million. By the end of 2007, around 70,000 customers had signed up for Bluewin TV.

Mobile recorded an increase of 2.7% in revenue from external customers to CHF 3757 million. The main reasons behind this increase are a continued rise in customer numbers, growth in new data services, and a lower number of acquisitions in the previous year. Revenue from new data services (excluding SMS) rose by CHF 73 million to CHF 288 million. As a result of higher sales and cost savings, operating income (EBITDA) was 0.9% higher at CHF 1817 million. The number of Mobile customers increased by a net 375,000 (+8.1%) to over 5 million. By the end of 2007, around 2.2 million customers had signed up for the Liberty product family and 360,000 for the M-Budget Mobile prepaid product.

Fastweb has been included in the consolidated Swisscom results since completion of the acquisition on 22 May 2007. The company continues to grow vigorously and, within the space of one year, grew its customer base by 24% to close 2007 with a total of 1.31 million customers. Fastweb’s revenue increased to EUR 1433 million in 2007, 13.7% higher than the previous year. EBITDA jumped 59.5% to EUR 480 million and included exceptional items amounting to EUR 70 million. Excluding these exceptional items, EBITDA grew by 29%. Fastweb reported its first ever pre-tax profit. At EUR 541 million, capital expenditure remained practically unchanged over the prior year.