Virgin Mobile's customer base up in third quarter |
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Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:00
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LONDON: Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) Plc., which is in talks with cable company NTL over a possible acquisition, claimed Wednesday it had signed up 193,000 new customers in its fiscal third quarter.
Britain's fifth-largest mobile phone operator said its customer base, including those who have used its mobile phone SIM cards in the last 90 days, rose 12 per cent to 4.35 million at the end of December.
Chief executive Tom Alexander said the company's pre-pay segment fuelled its growth during the quarter. The company has also entered the contract market, which has also contributed to the growth. The contract phones were initially available through Carphone Warehouse outlets but the company is now making them available at The Link, Virgin Megastore and concessions in WHSmith branches.
The company's service revenues increased 20.3 per cent, while annual customer revenues, calculated as average revenues per user, rose to 123 pounds from 121 at the half-year stage. It is, however, below the 132 pounds reported in the third quarter last year.
The company, majority-owned by Richard Branson, has a substantial pre-paid customer base. It is a MVNO, or Mobile Virtual Network Operator, which does not own its own networks and relies on T-Mobile's British network capacity.
The company's shares closed at 369-1/2 pence Tuesday, giving it a market value of 955 million pounds. Under the proposed deal with NTL, Branson is expected to take a lesser price in the form of a share swap, while its other shareholders, mostly institutional, will have a substantial gain.
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