Tele Columbus revenues stable, sees boost from completion of integration

Tele Columbus HQ

German cable operator Tele Columbus, which operates under the PŸUR brand, saw revenue in the fourth quarter of last year remain stable at €126.6 million, with the revenues from the outfit’s growing B2B business offsetting lower consumer internet and telephony revenues.

However, investments in customer service, headcount and growth initiatives in the B2B sector meant that normalised EBITDA was down 18.2% to €59.3 million.

Actual EBITDA increased by 14.3% to €46.9 million thanks to the group completing its integration of Primacom and Pepcom in the fourth quarter, meaning that one-off expenses were sharply down year-on-year.

Tele Columbus management made an extraordinary non-cash write-down of €124.2 million to account for the ongoing decline in linear television.

Tele Columbus counted 3.3 million connected households as of December 31. The company had 2.292 million customers at the end of the year, including 2.2623 million TV customers, down 16,000 quarter-on-quarter, 558,000 premium TV customers, up 5,000, 574,000 internet subscribers, up 3,000, giving Tele Columbus a 24.5% penetration rate, and 439,000 telephony customers, down 9,000.

Tele Columbus management said it expected this year’s results to be broadly in line with last year, with a stable base of connected homes, stable revenues, largely stabilised normalised EBITDA and largely stable investments.