Merger with Vodafone serves Hutchison well

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 04 August 2010 16:04

IT Industry - Listed Tech

Hutchison Telecommunications Australia's (ASX: HTA 50 percent share of the VHA joint venture gave it a $17.9m profit for the first six months of 2010 and EBITDA of $222.7m.

Hutchison CEO, Nigel Dews, said: VHA has continued to grow strongly across key financial metrics in a highly competitive market, particularly in the postpaid and mobile broadband segments. Hutchison's share of service revenue was $1.1b, up $207.8 million or 24.1 percent year on year. Operating margin year on year was up 36.0 percent [to 828.1m], and Hutchison's share of VHA's EBITDA was $222.7 million, up 127.0 percent year on year.

Capex as a percentage of service revenue was 11.6 percent for the half, a figure similar to the two prior halves. Dews said: "Investment is focused on network, IT and distribution. We expect capex to increase in the second half, in line with our integration plan."

According to Hutchison, VHA had 7.43 million customers at 30 June 2010, 539,000 added in the first half of 2010. "VHA's market-leading offers have attracted 1.1 million customers since the merger completed in June 2009," it said. VHA continues to deliver strong growth with postpaid customers now representing 58.0 percent of the base."

This figure differed from the 7.102 figure obtained by doubling the number quoted by Vodafone Group in its results last week. VHA CEO, Nigel Dews explained the difference by saying: "We report an active customer base - which is more consistent with the way Optus and Telstra report their results. Vodafone reports on a registered customer base. We include wholesale and MVNO customers; Vodafone does not.

Since the merger, the number of customers taking mobile broadband services via dedicated data devices (782,000), and those using data on their mobile (1.535m) has more than doubled to almost 2.3 million. Data and non-voice service revenue now represents 39.4 percent of VHA's ARPU.

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