Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2004/05/18/o2_results/

O2 rings up first profit

Jolly good...

By John Oates

Posted in On-Prem, 18th May 2004 10:39 GMT

Mobile provider mmO2 has rung up its first pre-tax profit and is even talking of paying out a dividend in November.

Turnover was up 22 per cent to £5.65bn and profits were £95m, up from losses of £10.2bn last year. mmO2 signed up an extra 2.5m customers last year, giving it a total of 20.7m.

The company saw decent customer growth and good Average Earnings Per User (ARPU). In the UK customer numbers grew by ten per cent to 13.26m and ARPU was £272, also a ten per cent growth. Contract churn - the number of contract customers leaving the service - in the UK was 26 per cent, down from 28 per cent last year.

In Germany, numbers rose 24 per cent to 5.98m and ARPU was €366. O2 in Ireland saw numbers grow 11 per cent to 1.4m and ARPU increased from €546 in 2003 to €559 in 2004.

David Varney, chairman of mmO2, said: "These results reflect the fundamental improvement in performance that mmO2 has achieved... since the demerger in November 2001." Varney also said the company having reported its first profit the company would review its distribution policy in November. ®

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