The impact of the fierce price war underway between French mobile operators is evident, with both SFR and Bouygues Telecom reporting weaker profits. The two operators, both part of larger corporations, revealed EBITDA declines in their first half of the year, although Bouygues Telecom managed to boost revenues during the six-month period by 5 per cent.
SFR, which is now fully controlled by Vivendi, said that its revenue dropped by 2 per cent in the first six months of 2011 to €6.1 billion, adding that its mobile EBITDA was €1.55 billion, an 8.8 per cent decline compared to the first half of 2010.
However, SFR said that it added 220,000 new customers, lifting its postpaid subscriber base to 16 million and the total customer base to 21.1 million.
"We now have full control of all our assets and have simplified our organisation," Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said in a statement. "Vivendi has achieved an essential strategic objective on very favourable financial terms."
The 5 per cent revenue growth that Bouygues Telecom achieved in the first six months of this year to €2.87 billion was balanced by EBITDA slipping 9 per cent down to €665 million. Net profit for the period was €191 million, down 19 per cent on the back of fierce competitive pressure, according to the company.
The company said that it attracted 206,000 new mobile contract subscribers during the period, helping to increase its total wireless subscriber base to 11.18 million.
For more:
- see this Reuters article
- see this Vivendi release
- see this Dow Jones Newswire article
- see this Telegeography article
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