Virgin Media O2 has announced financial results that show the company’s best full-quarter growth.
For the quarter ended 30 June 2022, Virgin Media O2 reported transaction adjusted revenue of £2.554 billion, up 0.2 percent on last year. This was driven by fixed and mobile service price rises. Mobile revenue was up 2.2 percent year-on-year to £1.427 billion with improvements in both handset and service.
Fixed revenue decreased by three percent year-on-year to £1.01 billion – this was mostly due to B2B, where there was a high level of installation revenue within Virgin Media Business Wholesale in Q2 2021. Other revenue rose by 4.9 pe cent to £121.3 million.
Transaction adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was up £972 million an increase of fourper cent compared with the same period a year earlier, excluding £14.8 million of opex CTC representing the best full-quarter growth rate since Virgin Media O2 was formed.
Net profit was £78 million, increasing by 331 percent compared with Q2 2021.
By the end of the quarter, Virgin Media O2’s total fixed-line (cable) customer base stood at 5.8 million with additions of 8,000 in the quarter, and it added 16,000 broadband connections, with an average broadband speed of 247Mbps – five times faster than the national average.
The company’s gigabit network expansion build programme, Project Lightning, increased to 114,000 premises, up from 101,000 premises added in Q1 2022 and 89,000 in Q2 2021.
The FTTP upgrade of the existing network is starting to ramp up after completion of trials in Q1. The goal is to roll out full fibre across the fixed network at a cost of £100 per home, with completion in 2028.
Meanwhile, mobile contract additions took the company’s total mobile contract base to 16 million, and Virgin Media O2’s total retail mobile connections – contract, prepaid and IoT – now stand at 33 million. 5G was available in more than 600 towns and cities at the end of the quarter and the company said it was on track to reach half of the UK in 2023,. It also upgraded 4G capacity in 154,000 postcodes during Q2.
Virgin Media O2 CEO Lutz Schüler said: “We’ve seen an improved revenue performance alongside our best quarterly profitability growth since we merged, putting us in solid shape to meet our full-year guidance
“It’s one year on since Virgin Media O2 was born and, while we’ve got much more to do, we came out of the gate running and achieved a huge amount in our first year as a joint business. As we navigate a tougher economic environment and provide our customers with great value and targeted support, we have clarity and focus on three growth waves that will drive sustained commercial momentum.
“Firstly, our integration is firmly on track, our synergies are being realised and we’re innovating at pace with convergence at our core; secondly, we’re moving forward our digitisation plans to improve our existing operations and build future foundations; and thirdly, we’re investing heavily to expand and upgrade our fibre and 5G networks to bring top-class connectivity to more of the country.”
