Optus turns in positive numbers

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 14 May 2009 06:11

IT Industry - Strategy

Despite the tough economic situation, Optus has managed to post positive numbers for all its key financial indicators, both for the full year to 31 March and for the fourth quarter.

Full year operating revenue was up 7.2 percent to $8,321m, operational EBITDA up 3.2 percent to $2,067m, net profit up 5.6 percent to $583m and free cashflow up 7.1 percent to $967m. For Q4, compared to Q4 2008, operating revenue was up 8.7 percent to $2,103m, operational EBITDA up 8.5 percent to $584m, net profit up 17 percent to $193m and free cashflow up 7.9 percent to $418m.

Optus attributed is Q4 revenue growth to "an enlarged mobile customer base" saying it had "strengthened its market position with sustained customer acquisition activities and innovative product offerings designed to address customer needs." Optus added 156,000 mobile customers in the quarter.

However Mobile EBITDA margin at 31 percent, was down four percentage points year-on-year "reflecting the higher postpaid customer acquisitions this quarter and associated costs," Optus said.

It attributed much of this to its promotion of the iPhone 3G  saying that without this " the underlying margin would be 36 percent," and justified the promotion by saying "Approximately 57 percent of the iPhone 3G activations this quarter were customers new to Optus."

Optus generated a healthy 41.5 percent increase in consumer and SMB on-net broadband revenues for the full year, to $367m. Optus Business and Wholesale EBITDA grew 24 percent from increasing on-net traffic. In its Consumer Fixed business, Optus Unbundled Local Loop (ULL) subscriber base reached 436,000 at 31 March, up 22,000 from a quarter ago taking total on-net broadband customers at 31 March 2009 to 848,000.

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