Telecoms provider Eir has said it recorded storm costs of approximately €500,000 in the second quarter of 2015.
Announcing that it increased quarterly revenue by 4 per cent year on year to €328 million at the end of last year, it noted that the cost of the storm damage will increase in the third quarter as much of the repair costs have been incurred in the new reporting period.
Eir chief executive Richard Moat said in a statement the company had delivered "a strong set of results" with a third consecutive quarter of revenue growth.
In a statement, he said the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) had also increased by 4 per cent year on year to €117m.
Mr Moat said the acquisition of Setanta Sports Ireland was a "transformational opportunity" for the business.
“It is part of our overall drive to offer great value and exciting services to our customers,” he said.
“Against the backdrop of a highly competitive market, the acquisition will deliver bottom line benefit in the future. This is subject to the necessary formal approvals, which are expected later in the financial year.”
He said network investment was continuing as planned.
“There are now 1.4 million premises that can access high speed broadband with speeds of up to 100Mb/s via our open access network,” he said.
“We remain fully committed and on target to deliver our promise to reach 1.9 million premises by 2020, many of which will have access to speeds of up to 1,000Mb/s.”
The EBITDA growth was underpinned by “continued strong performance” in mobile and an improving number of postpay customers which topped 500,000 for the first time.
Eir chief financial officer Huib Costermans said the company was “on track” for its stated outlook of low single digit bottom line growth for the full financial year.
Year to date revenue of €653 million also increased by 4 per cent compared to the six months ended December 31st, 2014.
Operating costs, excluding non-cash items for the quarter ended December 31st, 2015, were €133 million, broadly in line with the year before.
Year to date operating costs of €264 million were flat compared to the same period in the prior year.
EBITDA for the quarter and six months ended December 31st, 2015 was €117 million and €237 million respectively, representing an increase of 4 per cent and 5 per cent compared to the corresponding previous year’s periods.
The total group broadband customer base was 817,000 at the end of 2015, growing by 19,000 in the quarter and 35,000 in the six months to the end of December.
The retail broadband base was 451,000 at the end of December 2015, a decline of 3,000 since June 30th, 2015.
Wholesale broadband connections grew by 22,000 during the quarter and 38,000 compared to June 30th, 2015, bringing the total wholesale broadband lines to 366,000 lines at the end of December 2015.
