(Reuters) – French telecommunications group Iliad on Tuesday reported an 8.1% rise in third-quarter revenue, driven by subscriber growth in France, Italy and Poland .
Iliad, which its founder Xavier Niel delisted last year, posted consolidated revenue of 2.15 billion euros in the three months to September 30.
Over the first nine months of the year, consolidated profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization after rent (EbitdaaL) reached 2.42 billion euros, against 2.15 billion a year ago.
“We have perhaps never experienced such good commercial results but also such an uncertain macro-economic context,” Chief Executive Thomas Reynaud said in a statement.
In France, Free has “displayed one of the best quarterly commercial performances of the last 10 years”, according to the group, thanks to 78,000 net new fixed line subscribers and 184,000 net new mobile subscribers.
During a conference call, Thomas Reynaud underlined the “firm commitments” made by Iliad at the beginning of 2022 not to modify its pricing policy in France over the next five years.
Iliad, which entered the Italian fixed broadband market in January after shaking up the country’s mobile market with its low-cost offering in 2018, reported 18,000 new broadband subscribers in Italy. The number of mobile subscribers increased by 261,000.
During the quarter, Iliad registered 121,000 new subscribers in Poland, where the group acquired the broadband operator UPC from the American company Liberty Global.
At the end of September 2022, the financial leverage was at 3.3x, up compared to the end of 2021 given the acquisition of UPC in Poland and the payment of around €1 billion for 5G frequencies in Italy.
The group said it had the cash to cover its financing needs, but added that it was looking for ways to limit the impact of rising interest rates.
(Written by Valentine Baldassari, French version Elena Smirnova, editing by Kate Entringer)