Freenet : reports further customer growth in Q2 and confirms guidance for 2018

freenet AG has today released an interim report, announcing the results for the second quarter of 2018 and confirming the guidance for the financial year 2018.

In the second quarter of 2018, the Group achieved an increase in the key performance indicators compared with the corresponding previous-year period. Excluding the effects of the change-over to IFRS 15, group revenue increased by 54.8 million euros to 894.0 million euros (+6.5 per cent). The actual reported revenue amounted to 696.6 million euros.

The number of postpaid customers in the Mobile Communications segment increased by approximately 264,000 to 6.83 million customers during the past twelve months. Compared with the first quarter of 2018, the number has increased by approximately 58,000 customers. The corresponding revenue per customer remains stable at 21.50 euros per month.

The positive development of the key performance indicators in the TV and Media segment continued in the second quarter of 2018. freenet TV (DVB-T2 HD) as well as waipu.tv (IPTV) have recorded a continuous increase in customer numbers since they were launched. At the end of the second quarter of 2018, freenet TV reported 1.14 million subscribers. Approximately 215,000 new registrations were reported for waipu.tv in the second quarter of 2018, compared with the previous quarter, the number of waipu.tv subscribers increased by 31 percent to approximately 174,000 subscribers at the end of the reporting period. In conjunction with the positive development in customer numbers, revenue in the TV and Media segment increased to 77.3 million euros.

In the second quarter of 2018, the EBITDA of freenet AG increased by 9.6 million euros compared with the same previous-year period, to 117.9 million euros This result was attributable to the Mobile Communications segment with 101.3 million euros (Q2/2017: 99.9 million euros), the TV and Media segment with 13.0 million euros as well as the Other/Holding segment with -3.7 million euros. A partial sale of VHF infrastructure has also resulted in a one-off EBITDA exceptional effect of 7.3 million euros; this will, however, be offset in the remainder of the year by correspondingly lower VHF revenue.

The EBITDA excl. Sunrise amounted to 108.1 million euros, representing an increase of 9.4 million euros compared with the previous year quarter.

The free cashflow²amounted to 111.1 million euros and was slightly lower than the corresponding figure for the previous year quarter (Q2/2017: 124.7 million euros) but exceeded the half year forecast by 3.9 million euros.

Christoph Vilanek, Chief Executive Officer of freenet AG, comments as follows: 'We are consistently pursuing our strategy of focussing on (end) customer subscriber business. I am accordingly very satisfied with the development in the customer base in Mobile Communications, Digital Lifestyle and TV - they are the basis for long-term stability and growth.'

The quarterly report as of 30 June 2018 is available at Investor Relations under https://www.freenet-group.de/investor-relations/publikationen/index.html.

1) Earnings before interest and taxes, including the share of results of associates included using the equity method (EBIT) excluding depreciation and deferred taxes from the subsequent recognition of companies included using the equity method plus depreciation and impairments.

2) Cash flow from operating activities minus investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets plus the proceeds from disposals of intangible assets and property, plant and equipment.