Uniti banks AU$29m in net profit while Superloop reports AU$32m loss | ZDNet

Uniti Group has reported a AU$102 million boost in revenue for the full year to June 30, with the figure coming in at AU$160 million. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) spiked from AU$16 million to AU$74 million, and reported net profit saw a 85% increase to AU$29 million.

During November and December, Uniti picked up Telstra Velocity for AU$140 million, paid AU$9.25 million for Harbour ISP, and ended the saga to acquire Opticomm.

Broken down by segment, wholesale and infrastructure contributed the lion’s share of revenue and earnings, accounting for AU$105 million in revenue, and AU$79 million in EBITDA. The company said this trend would continue as it now has a fibre-to-the-premise order book that increases to over 250,000 lines. Uniti said its total number of lines in service or contracted to be built was over 565,000.

In its other segments, retail consumer and business reported AU$43.6 million in sales and AU$4.5 million in EBITDA, and its communications platform-as-a-service segment made just shy of AU$31 million in revenue, and AU$20 million in EBITDA.

“We are immensely proud of the company Uniti has become in just two and a half years since listing, transforming from a loss-making fixed wireless business into a highly profitable, growing, ASX200 organisation,” managing director and CEO Michael Simmons said.

“Today, Uniti is a ‘group of one’, an integrated digital infrastructure company, which is the definitive challenger in the residential FttP market, with a platform to further expand market share and presence in adjacent markets.”

See also: Best internet provider in Australia 2021: Top ISPs

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Superloop reported it increased revenue by 3.6% to AU$110.5 million, EBITDA increased by 35% to AU$18 million, and its net loss narrowed by AU$9 million to AU$32 million.

The company said it saw revenue from wholesale and business customers increase by 22% and consumer broadband subscribers increase by 62% to 47,000, but these increases were offset by a drop in guest Wi-Fi services due to the pandemic. Excluding the retirement of its cloud managed services, the company said revenue would have increased 14%.

Not included in this set of results was Superloop’s AU$110 million acquisition of Exetel, which did not close before the end of the fiscal year.

Once Exetel is included, Superloop is expecting a 135% in revenue to AU$261 million, EBITDA to jump 89% to AU$34 million, and free cash flow to be AU$14 million compared to zero. Exetel will bring 110,000 extra customers to next year’s results and are already being migrated onto the Superloop network.

“We demonstrated our ability to execute well, and it’s pleasing to see that translate to a marked increase in the utilisation of the Superloop network, and the outstanding network assets that we have,” managing director and CEO Paul Tyler said.

“In addition to the continued focus on organic growth across all three customer segments, the robust balance sheet that we now have in place allows us the operational flexibility to contemplate further [merger and acquisition] options in the year ahead, should we identify opportunities that represent sufficient value.”

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