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Telecom Plus PLC on Tuesday backed its full-year expectations despite reporting a shrink in interim profit as the cost of sales rose as well as revenue. Telecom Plus is a London-based provider of bundled household utility services, including energy, broadband and mobile telecommunications, and insurance under the Utility Warehouse brand. Pretax profit for the six months ended September 30 narrowed 37% to £24.6 million from £39.0 million a year ago. This was driven by an 11% increase in the cost of sales to £586.9 million from £529.9 million, as well as a widened loss on trade receivables and a rise in administrative expenses. Revenue rose 6.7% to £744.5 million from £697.8 million a year ago. Telecom Plus attributed the revenue rise to customer growth, with customer numbers multiplying to 1.4 million from 222,977 a year ago. The company said increasing administrative expenses reflected the customer growth as well as higher national insurance and minimum living wage costs. Telecom Plus declared an interim dividend of 38 pence, up 2.7% from 37p a year ago. Looking ahead, Telecom Plus said it is ‘confident’ it will meet full-year guidance of around 25% total customer growth and between £132 million to £138 million in adjusted pretax profit. For the financial year ended March 31, the company reported an adjusted pretax profit of £126.3 million. Telecom Plus said the adjusted pretax profit target is ‘slightly below the level of customer growth due to the one-off headwinds from Ofgem’s review of operating cost allowances within the energy price cap and the increases in national insurance and national living wage announced in the budget last year.’ ‘We are pleased to have delivered double digit compound customer growth for a fourth consecutive year, simply by helping households to save time and money on their essential household bills, and demonstrating the ability of our unique multiservice model to provide market-leading savings in a wide range of market conditions,’ said Chief Executive Stuart Burnett. ‘We have exceeded our initial cross-sell expectations into the first tranche of broadband customers we acquired from TalkTalk, and are excited by the future opportunities this creates.’ Shares in Telecom Plus fell 4.8% to 1,658.00p on Tuesday morning in London. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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