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London (pte026/16.03.2005/12:45) - British telecoms provider NTL http://www.ntl.com has admitted its customer service had deteriorated in the final few months of last year as it underwent massive restructuring to reduce costs. As the Financial Times (FT) http://www.ft.com reports, the cable group's customer call centres, fault assistance and retention service operations underwent a cull in 2004. The group's revenue for 2004 was up 5.7 per cent to just over 2 billion pounds. Revenue for the fourth quarter also rose - by 5.3 per cent to 532 million pounds. As the company reports in a press release on its website, EBITDA increased by 12 per cent to 695 million pounds for 2004 and was up by 4.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2004 to 182 million. http://www.ntl.com/mediacentre/press/display.asp?id=771
"NTL underwent major organisational changes in 2004, with almost every part of the business being restructured. It therefore gives me great pleasure to report that, despite this upheaval, the company performed very well with underlying margins for the group as a whole, including Broadcast, rising to 37 per cent in Q4. For continuing operations alone, they rose to 36 per cent. We considerably strengthened and improved the operational base of the company, reinforcing our ability to continue to grow profitably," said Simon Duffy, NTL's chief executive officer.
The group's EBIT in 2004 improved by 79.7 per cent to 39 million pounds, while the EBIT in the fourth quarter alone improved by 88.6 per cent year-on-year to 6.4 million pounds. The cable group also experienced strong gross adds in the fourth quarter of 185,200 in line with the previous four quarters. NTL also reported an on-net broadband growth of 71,800 in the same period, and a full year growth of 31 per cent for the whole of 2004. Free Cash-Flow for the company improved to 61 million pounds for the full year of 2004, and the net cash provided by operating activities improved to 385.3 million pounds in 2004, compared with 318.8 million in 2003. NTL sold its broadband business for 1.27 billion pounds in 2004.
"After implementing major system improvements in 2004 and aggressively removing delinquent or non-paying customers from our customer count, we expect to add over 200,000 customers on-net this year, including a further 20.25 per cent increase in our broadband customer base," said Duffy. "The sale of Broadcast and the acquisition of virgin.net mark significant changes in the company's strategic profile and, along with the operational improvements, position it well for the next stage of development. The whole company will remain focused on driving increases in shareholder value in 2005," he added.
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