By Ian Walker
LONDON--Ziggo NV (ZIGGO.AE) Wednesday said it swung to a
first-quarter net loss despite revenue rising 1.7% but said its
outlook for the year is unchanged.
The Dutch cable operator, which agreed a 6.9 billion euro ($9.53
billion) acquisition by Liberty Global PLC (LBTYA) in January, said
earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or
Ebitda, fell 4.3% to EUR213.1 million, primarily due to external
personnel hired to drive the company's innovation agenda forward,
including migrating legacy IT-systems, and the investment in
customers services and sales and promotions.
Net loss was EUR38.4 million for the quarter ended March 31,
compared with a profit of EUR92.7 million, while revenue rose 1.7%
to EUR394.2 million. Total internet subscribers rose 2% in the
quarter to 1.95 million, while telephony usage revenue fell
7.9%.
"With the change of our fixed line telephony offering as from
April 2014, we have taken a number of measures which we expect will
mitigate this trend going forward," Chief Executive Rene Obermann
said.
"As we anticipate no easing of the current competitiveness in
the market, we will continue investments in sales and promotions,
customer retention and product development to strengthen our
position and improve our services," Mr. Obermann said, adding that
he expects this to result in a flat Ebitda for 2014 compared with
last year.
Earlier this month the European Union's antitrust chief signaled
that his institution will review Liberty Global's planned
acquisition of Ziggo, and criticized a plea by Dutch authorities to
take over the case. The deal, if approved, would give John Malone's
international cable company access to 90% of Dutch households due
to its ownership of the second-largest cable operator, UPC.
The commission will make its decision on which authority will
review the Ziggo merger by May 8.
Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com
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