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Talk Talk Fundamentals (TALK)

StockMarketWire.com
TalkTalk Telecom's statutory FY pretax profit has more than halved to GBP14m, from GBP32m, in the wake of last October's damaging cyber attack. This included GBP83m of exceptional items, from GBP46m a year earlier.

FY dividend was up 15% to 15.87p a share.

CEO Dido Harding said TalkTalk had bounced back strongly in the final quarter following the cyber attack in October.

"We recorded our lowest ever churn and stabilised the broadband base, testimony to the speed with which customer sentiment towards TalkTalk has recovered, the success of our greater focus on existing customers, and the growing benefits of our simplification programme," Harding said in a statement.

"We reported full year results in line with our guidance and have declared a 15% higher dividend for the year.

"TalkTalk is well positioned to build upon our already strong credentials as the UK's leading value for money quad-play and B2B operator. There has never been a clearer space for a trusted value champion and our learnings from and experience since the cyber attack have helped to focus our plans for the year ahead.

"We see strong opportunities for growth across all our products, both for consumers and for businesses, against the backdrop of an increasingly supportive regulatory environment. As a result we are reiterating our financial guidance for FY17 of £320m-£360m EBITDA."

Q4 OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS:
* On-net net adds flat; RGU growth +148k

* Mobile +90k (14.9% share of new SIM market); fibre +72k; TV -14k

* Lowest ever quarterly churn at 1.3%

* On-Net revenue flat year on year; ARPU +3.9%

* Corporate revenue -2.9% year on year against strong comparative; Data revenues +40.0%

Why is TalkTalk dropping?

Q3 trading update


· Success of Fixed Low Price Plans on track to deliver lower churn and positive net adds in Q4
· Short term impact on Q3 on-net performance, as expected
· Continuing strong trends at TalkTalk Business - Corporate (ex-Carrier) +3.0%
· Reiterating strong EBITDA growth in line with previous guidance
Success of Fixed Low Price Plans on track to deliver lower churn and positive net adds in Q4

We launched our innovative Fixed Low Price Plans in Early October. Our unique plans fix prices for the duration of customers' contracts, treat existing customers fairly by allowing them to re-contract onto the new plans, and give customers control of their bundles. The stronger than expected re-contracting rates that we saw in Q3 continued through January and are proving transformative for our brand reputation and business:

· 516,000 customers re-contracted on the 18m plan during Q3, representing over 13% of the on-net base at the end of Q3. An additional 81,000 customers have re-contracted during the first 4 weeks of January, of which over 75% have re-contracted on the newly introduced 24m plan
· Re-contracting customers have shown strong upselling activity with 20% choosing to buy voice calling boosts and 12% choosing to take fibre
· Encouragingly, over 45% of new customers chose to take fibre and over 40% chose to take a paid-for TV set top box
· Re-contracted customers are showing early-life churn rates of less than half the levels we have seen under historic re-contracting activity

As a result we expect to deliver positive on-net net adds and lower churn in Q4, with a stable and higher quality Retail base driving revenue growth during FY18.
Short term impact on Q3 on-net performance, as expected

As highlighted in November, the high levels of re-contracting and the re-pricing of our legacy tariffs has had a number of short term impacts on Q3 on-net revenue: heightened churn amongst legacy cohorts that were re-priced in line with our strategy of simplifying tariffs, driving on-net churn 1.6%; on-net net adds -42k, impacted both by churn and by lower new acquisition activity in October driven by our decision to launch integrated pricing a month earlier than the rest of the industry. These effects were partially mitigated by the positive impact of pricing activity on customers who have chosen to remain on legacy tariffs, and continued growth in fibre (74k net adds) and mobile (75k net adds) penetration, helping to limit the year-on-year decline in Q3 on-net revenues to 5.4% with ARPU of £28.05 (Q3FY16: £28.91).
Continuing strong trends at TalkTalk Business - Corporate (ex-Carrier) +3.0%

TTB has continued to show strong growth in high margin Data revenues, which were up by 30% in Q3, and helped offset the ongoing decline in legacy voice revenues (-19%). Excluding Carrier revenues which declined as expected, by 17% year-on-year, Corporate revenues grew by 3.0% (-3.2% including Carrier). We are continuing to grow market share with new partners looking to sell our Ethernet and next generation voice portfolio and have a strong forward pipeline across our Partner and Direct business in both the SoHo/SME segments and Enterprise segment in which we have a lower share than our competitors today.
Reiterating strong EBITDA growth in line with previous guidance
As previously indicated, the strong re-contracting activity, while delivering sustainable long term benefits in the form of a more stable and higher quality base, will impact current year revenue and EBITDA. As a result, we expect FY EBITDA to be in line with previous guidance. As previously announced we expect the Final dividend for FY17 to be unchanged year-on-year at 10.58p.

We have continued to drive improved cash flows during H2, and as a result year-end leverage (net debt/EBITDA) is expected to be below 2.5x. We have also continued to make good progress towards diversifying our sources of finance and extending the maturity of our facilities and in January, we refinanced £400m of our short dated bank debt through the successful issue of a debut 5 year public bond.

Q3 summary performance
Group revenue of £435m (FY16: £459m) comprised On-net £332m (FY16: £351m), Corporate £92m (FY16: 95m) and Off-net £11m (FY16: £13m). On-net net adds -42k (on-net churn 1.6%), mobile +75k, fibre +74k, TV -31k, Ethernet and EFM +2.3k.

END

Interim results for the 6 months to 30 September 2017 (H1FY18)

Strong growth momentum; acceleration in net adds

· Net adds +46k (H1FY17: -29k) with double-digit growth in both Retail and Wholesale bases; opportunity to step up investment in growth to deliver further strong net adds progress in H2
· Return to on-net revenue growth in Q2 (+1.3%)
· Continued reduction in churn to 1.3% (H2 FY17: 1.5%)
· 1.6m customers now on FLPP (31 March 2017: 1.0m) - over 50% of Retail base
· Strong growth in fibre (+161k) and TV (+19k); sustained growth in Ethernet base (+4.3k)
· Simple and compelling new mobile proposition to be launched in Q3
· Continue to explore co-investment opportunities in FTTP; begun build of further 40,000 homes in York
· Investment in growth to drive FY Headline EBITDA(1,2) towards lower end of £270m-£300m guidance
H1FY18 Financial Highlights
· Headline EBITDA(1,2) £95m, excluding MVNO loss (H1FY17: £144m excluding MVNO loss)
· Statutory operating loss £42m (H1FY17: £44m profit)
· Headline Revenue(1,2) -1.8% excluding Carrier (H1FY17: -3.4%; H2FY17: -3.1%)
· Statutory Revenue £856m (H1FY17: £902m)
· On-net revenue -1.1%; Corporate (ex-Carrier) +2.2%; Data +10.7 %, Legacy Voice -8.2%
· Headline(1,2) operating cash flow £46m (H1FY17: £-28m)
· Statutory loss before tax £75m (H1FY17: profit £30m); statutory EPS -7.5p (H1FY17: 2.2p)
· H1 dividend 2.50p (H1FY17: 5.29p); H1 Headline net debt/EBITDA(1,3) 2.88x (H1FY17: 2.51x)
Tristia Harrison, Chief Executive of TalkTalk commented:
"When we simplified and reset the business in May we said our priorities were growth, cash and EBITDA, in that order. The first half performance shows we are delivering on that plan. We have now delivered a third consecutive quarter of growth in our broadband base, with both Retail and Wholesale bases growing; returned to on-net revenue growth; and delivered lower churn than a year ago. Our clear value proposition is resonating strongly against an uncertain economic environment and underpins our plan to simplify and focus all our investment in delivering affordable, reliable fixed connectivity to both homes and businesses".
"We expect to step up our planned investment in growth in the second half, as we take advantage of the strong demand we are seeing for our fixed low price plans; fibre take up and affordable propositions in both our residential and B2B markets. Our revised strategy of focusing the business on fewer, clearer priorities is re-establishing TalkTalk as the value provider of choice in the UK fixed connectivity market."

(1) Headline measures represent trading results before adjusting items which are defined in note 1 to the interim condensed consolidated financial statements. The directors believe the presentation of the Group results in this way is relevant to an understanding of our financial performance, as adjusting items are identified by virtue of their size, nature or incidence. Further details regarding Headline measures are disclosed in note 1 to the interim condensed financial statements. Reconciliations between Headline measures and statutory reported measures are shown in notes 6, 9 and 10 to the interim condensed financial statements.
(2) Headline EBITDA excludes losses from MVNO proposition during the period of £7m (H1FY17: £14m). Headline Revenue excludes revenues from MVNO proposition of £28m (H1FY17: £33m).
(3) As calculated for the purposes of the Group's borrowings, see note 1 to the interim condensed consolidated financial statements.

Directorate Change

Board Appointment

The Company is pleased to announce that Nigel Langstaff will join the Board of the Company as an independent Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.

In accordance with paragraph 9.6.13 of the Listing Rules, Mr Langstaff is interested in 112,821 ordinary shares in the Company representing approximately 0.012% of the Company's issued share capital and was an Executive Director of Dixons Carphone PLC from 28 January 2010 until 6 August 2014. The Company has no further information to disclose under paragraph 9.6.13 of the Listing Rules in respect of the appointment.

Deutsche Bank Buy 114.25 170.00 180.00 Reiterates

Trading update https://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=6298190