'United Internet revenues grow 4.4%, EBITDA up 21.5%'

Germany-based ISP United Internet reports a 4.4 percent growth in revenues to EUR 409.1 million compared with EUR 391.7 million a year ago. The comparable prior-year figure takes account of the sale of the Adlink Display Marketing business in Q3 this year. EBITDA grew by 21.5 percent from a year ago to EUR 95.4 million, and EBIT improved 26 percent to EUR 82 million. Including non-recurring income of EUR 50.2 million from the sale of Freenet shares, EBITDA rose to EUR 145.6 million and EBIT to EUR 132.2 million. Earnings per share improved from a loss of EUR 0.45 last year (including EUR 0.63 from write-downs) to a profit of EUR 0.43. This amount includes EUR 0.19 from net gains of EUR 45.2 million from the sale of Freenet shares, write-ups of the MSP holding and write-downs especially for the Versatel shares, as well as EUR 0.03 from discontinued operations. The number of paying customers grew from 7.95 million at the beginning of this year to 9.17 million at the end of September, including 700,000 freenet DSL contracts. The technical migration of freenet customers is expected to be fully completed on schedule next month. The number of internet subscribers dropped by 30,000 during the quarter to reach 3.6 million, including 3.44 million DSL customers (down 30,000). Of the DSL customers, 1.7 million have an inclusive DSL package (up 120,000 during Q3) and 1.74 million have a resale DSL line (down 150,000 during Q3). Due to its healthy business development, United Internet has raised its earnings forecasts for 2009 once again to 8 percent growth for full-year EBITDA and EBIT.

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