NTL Announces Financial Results for 1999 Record 4th Quarter as Annualised Revenues Approach $2 billion (£1.6 billion)
GROUP HIGHLIGHTS
Total Revenues $1,584,134
EBITDA $210,918
• Strong progress was made in integrating the acquisitions of Comcast (UK); ConTel; Diamond; and two franchises acquired from BT into NTL;
• Customer penetration increased to over 40% for NTL Group franchises;
• In long-term NTL franchises penetration rose to 48%;
• In final Quarter a record net additional 60,000 customers were recruited;
• Monthly churn reduced to approximately 1%;
• During the year NTL acquired CableLink, Ireland's largest cable operator and the IG Networks in France. In December agreement was reached to acquire Cablecom, Switzerland's largest cable operator;
• NTL's broadcast transmission business has been expanded by the acquisition of the Australian National Transmission Network;
• France Telecom became a major shareholder;
• Agreement was reached on the acquisition of CWC's consumer business - subject to regulatory approval;
• Disposal of 50% stake in CableLondon.
OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS
• 1.8 million cable and telephony customers in the UK and Ireland. This will rise to nearly 3 million following the acquisition of the consumer operations of Cable and Wireless Communications plc;
• Launch in August of single pricing and product structure;
• Launch of national advertising campaign which has established a national footprint for NTL's service;
• Opening of state of the art Digital Media Centre;
• Agreement with DIVA UK to launch Video on Demand services.
BUSINESS TELECOMS
• Business telecoms revenue grew by 120%;
• At end 1999 NTL had more than 44,900 business customers and more than 186,000 business telephony lines up from 24,900 and 92,800;
• Agreement to work with Nortel to complete one of the UK's first fully optical national networks;
• Acquisition of Workplace Technologies, a systems integration and data services company;
• Plans to build major new teleport to support growing satellite services business.
BROADCAST AND RADIOCOMMS
• Broadcast and Radiocomms grew revenue by more than 44%;
• Extension of ITV/C4 analogue transmission contracts through to 2008;
• Completion of first phase of DTT network build;
• Prestigious contract won to supply Metropolitan Police with radio communications
• Acquisition of Simaco Europe Ltd.
INTERACTIVE SERVICES AND CONTENT
• NTL became first company in UK to launch interactive services - growing number of interactive partners;
• Agreement with BBC to exploit potential of BBC Sports Library
• Acquisition of stakes in Newcastle United and Aston Villa.
Full text of the announcement is available at: http://www.ntl.com/investors
• NTL uses state-of-the-art technology to deliver telephone, tv, internet and interactive services to UK homes and businesses.
• 22 million homes watch ITV, C4 and C5 thanks NTL's transmission network: 5.6 million of those homes are within its fibre-optic broadband network.
• NTL helped pioneer digital tv and is involved in digital terrestrial, cable and satellite and launched the UK's first interactive service in March 1999.
• NTL's national network carries such names as Virgin, Orange and AT&T.
• with businesses in France, Australia and Ireland, NTL's headquarters is in Hook, Hampshire, UK. It has over 10,000 employees and is listed on NASDAQ and EASDAQ.
• in July 1999, ntl announced its intention to acquire the consumer operations of Cable and Wireless Communications.