26 July 2012

Colt Group S.A. (London Stock Exchange: COLT) issued today the results for the six months ended 30 June 2012.

Highlights of first half 2012:

• Overall Group revenue grew by 4.1% (2.6% at constant currency). Growth occurred across all major product categories
• Data revenue growth of 1.8% reflects the continued take-up of Ethernet services (12.8% growth) more than compensating for the decline in legacy bandwidth services
• Managed Services revenue grew by 15.4% including Data Centre Services revenue growth of €6.2m (46.3%)
• Voice revenue grew by 4.1% with growth in Carrier Voice (38.1%) exceeding the decline in Corporate and Reseller Voice (11.7%)
• EBITDA was €161.8m, with gross profit improvement offset by operating costs from investment in the business. EBITDA benefited from a reduction of provisions for bad debt and voice termination costs totalling €10.0m
• Capital expenditure was in line with H1 2011 with programmes focused on network expansion, data centre expansion and product and services development.
   

Key information:

¹ EBITDA is earnings before net finance costs, tax, depreciation, amortisation, foreign exchange and exceptional items
² Free cash flow is net cash generated from operating activities less net cash used to purchase non-current assets and net finance costs paid
³ Net Funds includes deposits classified as current asset investments

Rakesh Bhasin , Chief Executive Officer, commented :

“During the first half of 2012 we continued to execute on our strategy to deliver the information delivery platform. Despite challenging economic conditions we made good progress in H1 and are targeting growth for the second half of the year. Our products and services are gaining traction in the market and our pipeline is improving in both quality and quantity. We continue to invest in our products, services and infrastructure to support future growth.”