Cable & Wireless Communications Plc. (CWC.L) Wednesday reported a profit for the year compared to a loss last year, amid lower exceptional items. The company added that it has set a new target to drive $100 million of savings.
Tony Rice, CEO, said, ''In what was a dynamic and busy year I am pleased with our financial performance. EBITDA finished slightly ahead of expectations, mobile data revenue continued to grow across the Group..and our cash generation saw double digit growth year on year. We begin the 2013/14 year with a strong foundation and a clear direction."
Rice said the $100 million savings target is 13 percent of its existing operating expenditure, which will improve margins and cash flow, particularly in the Caribbean business.
On a continuing operations basis, for the year ended March 31, pre-tax profit totaled $35 million compared to a loss of $117 million in the prior year. The prior-year results present the results of Islands sub-group and Macau in discontinued operations.
During the year, the firm took an exceptional restructuring charge of $50 million related to efficiency initiatives and incurred an exceptional non-cash impairment charge of $86 million in the Eastern Caribbean reflecting the difficult economic climate.
In the previous year, the firm had recorded a $66 million restructuring charge as well as a non-cash impairment and accelerated depreciation charge of $244 million primarily due to poor financial performance in Jamaica.
Excluding items, pre-tax profit fell to $171 million from $193 million.
Loss from continuing operations narrowed to $6 million from $166 million in the previous year.
Profit attributable to owners of the parent company was $19 million or 0.8 cents per share in comparison with a loss of $77 million or 3.1 cents per share last year, due to lower exceptional charges.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, or EBITDA, net other operating and non-operating income/expense and exceptional items, was flat with last year at $589 million.
EBITDA improved 1 percent to $905 million on a constant currency basis including discontinued operations. Revenue for the year slid 4 percent to $1.942 billion from $2.032 billion with a 2 percent drop in Panama, a 4 percent decline in the Caribbean and a 12 percent decrease in Monaco.
Including discontinued operations, revenue was nearly flat with last year at $2.89 billion.
Mobile revenue was flat with the prior year as mobile data growth of 34 percent was offset by declining voice revenue.
Fixed voice and enterprise, data and other revenues were adversely impacted by declining voice traffic, lower activity levels and a difficult macroeconomic environment, the company noted.
Mobile customers fell 10 percent to 3.39 million and Broadband customers slid 2 percent to 366 thousand, while Fixed customers were 3 percent lower at 1.11 million.
For the financial year 2012/13, the Board recommended a final dividend of 2.67 cents per share. Looking ahead, the company expects 2013/14 group EBITDA to be similar to that of 2012/13.
The stock is gaining 0.4 percent in early trading on Wednesday at $45.16.
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