Bouygues Telecom turns in solid Q2

Bouygues Telecom

French service provider Bouygues Telecom has posted solid Q2 numbers, with growth in both its fibre and mobile bases.

In the fixed segment, its FTTH base continued to grow, with 176,000 new customers added in first-half 2019, of which 82,000 were in the second quarter. The FTTH penetration rate reached 20% at end-June 2019 versus 11% a year earlier. The company had 745,000 FTTH customers and a total of 3.8 million fixed customers at 30 June 2019.

The company added 280,000 new mobile plan customers excluding machine-to-machine subscriptions in first-half 2019, of which 132,000 were in the second quarter, taking it to a total of 11.2 million mobile plan customers excluding machine-to-machine at end-June 2019.

Mobile churn was down 48% and fixed churn was down 17%.

Bouygues Telecom reported sales of €2,913 million in first-half 2019, up 14% year-on-year and up 13% like-for-like and at constant exchange rates. Growth in sales from services accelerated, rising 7% to €2,226 million. This increase reflected growth in the mobile and fixed customer base and the stabilization of ‘average billing per unit’, its expression of ARPU.

The company posted an operating profit of €230 million for the first half, up €67 million year-on-year.

Commenting on parent company Bouygues’ overall results – which also include broadcaster TF1 as well as the conglomerate’s construction activities – analysts at investment bank Jefferies said that the telecom unit had seen “robust customer growth” and stabilising average billing per unit, especially in the fixed segment, that translated into accelerating service revenue growth.

Jefferies said that a lower rate of fixed ABPU decline was “an encouraging indicator” and noted that Q2 revenue growth of 8.5% to €1.132 billion represented “a notable pick-up” year-on-year.