Digitaltveurope.com

Francisco Arteche

Spanish regional cable operator Euskaltel has set a modest goal of reaching 1,000 customers in Navarre in June after launching in the province on Orange’s network, with the Basque Country-based operator’s president Alberto García Erauzkin and CEO Francisco Arteche telling its shareholders’ meeting that Euskaltel woud become a much more competitive operator.

The pair told shareholders that growth would be delivered across the three territories in which it operators – the Basque Country, Asturias and Galicia – as well as Navarre, with a renewed focus on business customers.

Euskaltel will distribute a special dividend of €26.9 million, amounting to €0.151 per share, on July 5. In October last year the company approved the payment of a dividend of €0.127 per share, or €22.7 million, based on its year-end results for 2017, which was paid out on February 1. The two dividends together are equivalent to a 100% payout of the company’s net profit, Euskaltel said.

Euskaltel last month posted Q1 revenues of €176.6 million, up 26.6%, and a net profit of €14.6 million, up 10.9%. The company did not at the time break out numbers for its expansion into Navarre.