Salt with higher revenue and profit in the first quarter
Salt posted higher revenues and earnings in the first quarter. Sales rose by 5 percent to 250.5 million francs, as the mobile provider wrote in a communiqué on Wednesday.
The growth trend in mobile communications continued across all brands, the report continues. Salt added 18,700 subscribers in the first quarter and now has 1.33 million mobile subscribers. By comparison, industry leader Swisscom was only able to attract a net total of 1,000 new mobile subscribers in the first three months.
Salt was also able to sell more devices in its stores than a year ago. At that time, many stores had been closed from mid-March due to Corona. The Salt Home fixed network and TV offering also continued to grow. In addition, the positive trend among corporate customers has continued, Salt explained. In April, the company exceeded the 100,000 mark for mobile customers.
More profit in the cash register
Operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 1.0 percent to CHF 123.6 million. Excluding the accounting changes IFRS 15 and 16, however, EBITDA would have decreased by 3.1 percent to CHF 99.1 million. The decrease was mainly due to the delayed shipment of cell phones sold in the fourth quarter and higher expenses for acquisition, customer retention and advertising.
Below the line, Salt parent company Matterhorn Telecom posted a net profit of CHF 68.9 million in the starting quarter. This is over ten times more than the 6.2 million in the previous year.
The main reason for the jump in profits is the sale of a 10 percent stake in the Swiss Infra Services subsidiary to Swiss Towers AG for 146 million francs. This flushed a special profit of 48.2 million francs into the coffers in the starting quarter, according to the quarterly report.
Salt CEO: Excellent result
The result was excellent, explained Salt CEO Pascal Grieder. In addition, the fiber-optic partnership with Swisscom signed at the end of April provides an important basis for future growth. This will enable Salt to make its broadband and TV offering available to around 3 million households by the end of 2025. That is about twice as many as today. Salt will thus become a nationwide full-service provider.
In order to grow outside the fiber-optic network, Salt is also offering the TV and Internet service for the home with a receiver via the mobile network where this is powerful enough. According to earlier information, Salt is thus reaching 420,000 additional households. (SDA)
