FastWeb's Clients over 290,000: Record Growth in Third Quarter
e.Biscom: Consolidated ebitda over ?70 million during the first nine months of 2003
Consolidated Revenues at over ?385 million, +70% versus first nine months of 2002
Milan, October 8th 2003 - e.Biscom S.p.A. (Milan, Nuovo Mercato: EBI) Italy's leading broadband telecommunications company, announces its preliminary third quarter consolidated results, in terms of revenues, clients and ebitda, confirming the forecast of exceeding its 2003 year-end targets.
During the first nine months of the year, e.Biscom recorded consolidated revenues of over ? 385 million, a 70% increase with respect to ? 228.7 million reported for the first nine months of 2002. The consolidated revenues of e.Biscom, in the third quarter 2003, were around ? 150 million versus ? 135.6 million reported for the previous quarter.
Great increase also in margins. In the first nine months of the year, e.Biscom reported consolidated ebitda of over ? 70 million, versus ? -36.9 million reported in the same period of the previous year. e.Biscom's consolidated ebitda, in the third quarter 2003, was over ? 34 million, a 50% increase with respect to ? 23.1 million reported for the second quarter.
In the third quarter, HanseNet's contribution to these results was over ? 25 million in revenues and over ? 4 million in ebitda. From October 1st 2003, HanseNet will no longer be consolidated by e.Biscom.
FastWeb's clients, as of September 30th 2003, exceeded 290,000, more than double the 131,500 subscribers reported as of September 30th 2002. In the third quarter, FastWeb's new subscribers were over 40,000, 50% more than in the same period of the previous year and 20% more than in the previous quarter. This growth is particularly remarkable given historically low seasonal factors. The great success of FastWeb's new television service, available both on fibre and adsl, is also proven by the growth in video service clients. In the months of August and September, the percentage of the new adsl clients who subscribed to the television option rose to 70%, with respect to 30% in the month of March when Video on Demand over adsl was launched.
The above mentioned results are preliminary and subject to possible small modifications with respect to final consolidated third quarter results which will be presented on November 12th 2003.