Tiscali raises targets after ADSL growth

The company posted EBITDA of EU15.6m, up 18% from the fourth quarter, and a massive leap from the EU1m EBITDA reported in the first quarter a year ago. It also represents the first time the company has reported a positive EBITDA for two consecutive quarters.

First quarter revenue was up 9% on last year at EU212.5m, boosted mainly by the increase in the number of ADSL users, which quadrupled from the first quarter last year to 360,000 at the end of March. Tiscali said that figure was up to 400,000 at the end of April and is continuing to grow at an average rate of 11,000 subscribers a week. It expects to reach 700,000 ADSL users by year-end.

As a result of this growth access revenues were up 8% over last year to EU148.3m, contributing 70% towards total revenues. Revenue from corporate services, and voice services was also up, but portal revenues were down 39% on last year, which the company claims was due to the sale of the group's portals in the US and Spain in the first half of 2002.

Tiscali, which made that three acquisitions during the first quarter, said that its cash burn fell by 84% over last year to EU23.9m. For the full year, the company now expects revenue growth of over 20% over 2002, higher than previously expected, and confirmed its target of being cash flow positive in the second half of the year.





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