Tiscali eyes profit in 2005

Tiscali reckons it's still on course to make a profit next year as it continued to improve key financial indicators during the last quarter. Revenues were up 22 per cent in the three months to the end of September from €222m (£155m) last year to €270.6m (£188.5m). The European ISP made a pre-tax loss of €33.3m (£23m), a 54 per cent improvement compared to the €73.6m (£51m) pre-tax loss recorded last year.

At the end of September, Tiscali had 1.54m ADSL customers, up from 602,000 at the same time last year with 102,000 new punters signing up during the quarter. In all, Tiscali has 7.7m active punters, of which 6.2m are dial-up users. Despite this, the ISP claims it is "well on track" to hitting it target of 1.7m broadband punters by the end of the year.

It's been a busy summer for the ISP ever since it announced plans to flog a number of non-core country businesses. During Q3 it raised €81.3m by flogging its businesses in Austria, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and South Africa.

Said the company in a statement: "On the basis of the implemented disposal plan and of other actions already taken, Tiscali's board of directors has confirmed its confidence in the financial sustainability of the business plan which is currently being implemented, aimed at meeting the rapid growth in demand for broadband services throughout Europe." ®

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