Orange JV sees improvement
EVERYTHING Everywhere yesterday announced its first results under new chief executive Olaf Swantee, with the firm appearing to stabilise after a string of underwhelming quarterly figures.
The company, formed by the merger of France Telecom’s Orange and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, said it gained 185,000 contract customers, while it shed 227,000 pre-paid users. Swantee told City A.M. he is not worried about the net fall, saying that 80 per cent of the firm’s revenue comes from contracts. He said the thing that “keeps him awake at night” is losing these, with Everything Everywhere now boasting an industry-leading churn rate. The company does not report profit figures until its full-year results next year.
Its service revenue fell 1.9 per cent to £1.56bn compared with last year. However, excluding regulatory changes to mobile termination rates, which have hit all the networks, its service revenue rose 3.8 per cent. This is still expected to lag behind rivals O2 and Vodafone, both of which report next month.
Swantee also said he was taken out of context when he called the Everything Everywhere brand “silly”, insisting he liked the name and calling it “provocative, inspiring, challenging and unusual”. It has been dogged by rumours it is set to drop the branding, despite plans to open new Everything Everywhere stores.
The firm, which has slashed its top-heavy management structure since Swantee’s arrival, said it was making good progress in cutting costs and said it is on track to make at least £3.5bn worth of synergy savings by 2014.