Tele Columbus on target after solid H1 results

German cable operator Tele Columbus has reiterated its targets for the end of this year after turning in solid first-half results, and has confirmed its plans to move ahead with a company-wide rebrand this quarter.

Tele Columbus posted revenues of €245.4 million for the first half, up 4%. Normalised EBITDA was €123.5 million, up 7%, with an EBITDA margin of 50.3%, up 1.4 points year-on-year.

The group added 14,000 internet revenue-generating units and 15,000 telephony RGUs in the second quarter. At the end of June, the company had 2.39 basic cable TV customers, including 430,000 premium TV RGUs. It had 549,000 internet customer and 528,000 telephony customers. The number of RGUs per customers increased from 1.62 at the end of the first quarter to 1.63 at the end of Q2.

The number of homes upgraded and ready for two-way communication on Tele Columbus’s own network increased by 4.1% year-on-year to 2.31 million, representing a ration of 64%.

Tele Columbus is planning to produce unified branding across its Tele Columbus, Pepcom and Primacom units by the end of Q3. The company is also moving ahead with a network expansion programme. Tele Columbus spent €46.6 million on capital expenditure in the first half, representing 18.9% of revenues. The company had 3.6 million homes connected across Germany as of June 30.

Timm Degenhardt, formerly the chief commercial officer of Switzerland’s Sunrise, who it to take over as Tele Columbus CEO next year from Ronny Verhelst, joined the company on August 14. He will become a member of the group’s management board on September 1.