WINNIPEG – Year end profits and revenues both fell at MTS Allstream, but the company asserted that it has maintained “a strong overall financial profile and a solid balance sheet”.
Revenue for 2009 was $1.823 billion, down 2.3% over 2008, which the company said reflected declines in its local, long distance, data and unified communications lines of business, partly offset by strong growth in its wireless, consumer high-speed Internet, digital television and converged IP services. EBITDA was $625 million, down 6.2% from last year.
At year-end, the Winnipeg-based company reported 458,478 wireless subscribers, up 5.5% from the prior year; 86,520 digital television subscribers, up 2.3% from 2008; and 181,913 consumer high-speed Internet customers.
Its overall residential customer connections in Manitoba, which include residential network access services, consumer high-speed Internet, consumer wireless and digital television subscribers, were up by more than 8,000 connections year-over-year.
MTS Allstream said that it was successful with cost reduction efforts through 2009, achieving $58.4 million in annualized savings, exceeding its initial target for the year and arriving at the high end of its revised target range for 2009.
"Our results for 2009 underscore progress in areas important to our long-term success, namely the continued solid performance of growth product lines, increased focus in our revenue mix toward growth services and the careful management of operating costs," said CEO Pierre Blouin, in a statement. "Our Manitoba business continues to serve as a solid foundation for our Company, showing solid growth and leading margins through 2009. Performance in our Enterprise Solutions division, although impacted by challenges in the national economy, has stabilized in a fashion consistent with our revised 2009 outlook."
On January 1st, MTS Allstream implemented an organizational change to better align its business around segments and markets. The Manitoba large business segment, previously part of the Enterprise Solutions division, will be a part of the MTS unit, and is led by Kelvin Shepherd, president of MTS. The national small business segment, previously part of the Consumer Markets division, will be a part of the Allstream unit, which includes all business customer segments outside of Manitoba and is led by Dean Prevost, president of Allstream. The change impacts only the operating divisions, and all corporate groups will continue to be integrated on a company-wide basis, the company said in its press release.
Looking ahead, the company said that it will set aside $25 million of its 2010 capital to fund the Allstream national IP network; the expected launch of Allstream wireless, a business-only wireless service; and the deployment of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) in Manitoba. The FTTH initiative is expected to cover 500 homes in the province through 2010.
The company said that it expects results in 2010 to be generally in line with 2009 results, and predicted revenues of $1.780 billion to $1.880 billion, and EBITDA of $585 million to $635 million.
