Tele Columbus on track

Tele Columbus HQ

German cable operator Tele Columbus’s management confirmed their full-year financial guidance on the back of respectable Q3 results, despite a delay in the launch of the group’s new unified brand, PŸUR.

Tele Columbus’s revenues grew by 4.3% to €123.3 million in Q3, while normalised EBITDA rose by 7.2% to €68.3 million.

The company added 15,000 internet and 17,000 telephony revenue-generating units in the quarter taking its internet and telephony totals to 564,000 and 545,000 respectively, and blended ARPU rose by 5.5% to €17.20. The number of TV customers has declined by 2.3% year-on-year to 2.38 million, but the number of premium TV customers rose by 2.4% to 432,000.

The group commercially launched the PŸUR brand on October 4, providing a unified identity for its constituent offerings. Tele Columbus said it had made progress integrating the former Primacom and Pepcom networks. The company recently struck an agreement with Vodafone to acquire its stake in Munich-based service provider Kabelfernsehen München Servicenter (KMS).

Ronny Verhelst, outgoing CEO, said: “We have had an ambitious plan for 2017, and the company is responding well to the challenge.

Clearly, projects remain to be finished but we are making very good progress.”

His replacement, Timm Degenhardt, said: “The company is preparing the platform for sustained organic growth; all important elements are there, or are being prepared, and I look forward to bringing it all together with the team.”