Tiscali's sale of its French operation is expected to be done and dusted shortly, the European ISP confirmed today.

Publishing its draft results for 2004 the company said: "The Board of Directors of Tiscali SpA has analysed the offers received for the acquisition of the French subsidiary, Liberty Surf, and has empowered the Executive Directors for its disposal which is expected to be formalised shortly."

Telecom Italia is favourite to snap up the business for anywhere between €250m to €300m as Tiscali looks to flog its French operation to pay-off a €250m loan due in July. The deal could be inked as early as this week.

Elsewhere, Tiscali reported that revenues for the year were up 20 per cent from €901m in 2003 to €1.08bn in the 12 months to the end of December 2004. Revenues from its internet access business (both dial-up and broadband) accounted for 68 per cent of turnover.

The ISP's pre-tax loss declined by 9 per cent to €269.1m from €295.6m.

At the end of December 2004, Tiscali had 7.4m internet punters including 5.7m dial-up users and 1.65 ADSL customers - 840,000 more broadband users than the year before. ®

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