Today Cable & Wireless announced its results for the year ended 31 March 2007. Total revenues were up 4% year-on-year to £3.348 billion, EBITDA before exceptionals was up 20% to £492 million, and the operating profit before exceptionals was up 17% to £221 million. Despite restructuring the group into three parts (International; Europe, Asia & US; Access), a significant redundancy programme and the disposal of the
Ovum principal analayst David James comments:
The latest Cable & Wireless (C&W) transformation is now showing promising results, as it moves from Recovery phase into the final Transformation phase, following the acquisition of Energis in November 2005. The financial year 2006/7 was the first to include a full year of contributions from Energis, and the company acknowledges that this was a major contributory factor in the improved results this year.
C&W reported that the turnaround of its Europe, Asia and
The International business unit reported revenues up 7% at constant currency to £1.1 billion. EBITDA was up 8%, although operating profit dropped 16% to £269 million. The unit is experiencing customer and revenue growth from its broadband and mobile operations in the over 30 smaller (mainly island) states around the world where it operates. The strategy going forward is to invest for further growth and productivity gains in broadband and mobile services across its market.
Following the sale of its retail broadband business to Pipex in September 2007, the C&W Access business has refocused on providing unbundled local loops to some of the largest
C&W has worked over the past year to establish firm roots for future growth - the first shoots of that growth are starting to appear.
David James has over 20 years' experience in the telecoms and IT industry. He leads Ovum's team of analysts on the Wholesale@Ovum advisory service.