Internet and telephony are continuing to perform well for Kabel Deutschland. A net increase of 84,000 internet and telephony customers gave Germany’s largest cablenet strong customer growth. Sales and marketing efforts also ensured a recovery in pay-TV and digital video recorder sales.
Adjusted for the 2013 absence of carriage fees from the country’s public service broadcasters, revenue grew by 5.7% on the previous quarter. However, growth forecasts for the current financial year have been reduced from 8% to 5-6%.
In addition, a “change of control” clause in bank loans, potentially triggered by the sale to British telco Vodafone is in need of clarification. Follow-up loans totalling €2.07 billion were paid back early by KDG, which also returned unused credit lines totalling €324 million to date.
The takeover by Vodafone has also caused various unplanned expenses reaching around €205 million, which will impact on the operator’s net income.