Three UK publishes Q1 2024 results

9 May 2024

     Three UK Q1 2024 results

Year-on-year revenue and margin growth but EBITDA less capex
remains negative

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Highlights

• Challenging economic conditions remain a determining factor for telecommunication customer spending. Despite year-on-year growth in revenue and margin, the operation continued to be impacted by inflationary cost pressures, whilst EBITDA less capex remained negative (cash outflow since 2020), driven by network investments coupled with an increasing cost base.
• Revenue and margin closed with year-on-year growth driven by the increase in certain customer segments, as well as revenue initiatives. Growth remains challenging from the shift of customer behaviour towards lower value products.
• Total margin % remains relatively stable and at a healthy level across periods through various margin management initiatives.
• B2B and SMARTY continues to drive active customer growth, offsetting continued higher churn from traditional core business.
• Capex primarily focused on delivering contractual and regulatory requirements (HRV & SRN programmes).

Robert Finnegan, Chief Executive Officer of Three UK, said: “We have seen a solid start to the year, successfully growing our revenue and margin and adding 6% to our active contract base. However, we continue to be impacted by inflationary pressures, and market conditions remain challenging. Our EBITDA-CAPEX remains negative, as it has been since 2020, which is unsustainable long-term.

“I believe that merging with Vodafone is vital to give us the required scale to invest, grow and compete to create a best-in-class network for the UK.”