European business communications services provider Colt Telecom has reported a 99% increase in net income to E17.1m ($22.7m) for the first quarter 2008, compared to E8.6m ($11.4m) in the year-ago quarter, on revenue up 1.3% at E416.2m ($552.6m).
During the quarter, Colt realized a foreign exchange gain of E9.7m ($12.8m) on forward contracts relating to the Open Offer proceeds. Operating income grew 55.3% to E22m ($29.1m), while diluted EPS doubled to E0.02 ($0.02).
The company said data revenue grew 3.7% to E200m ($265.1m), and voice revenue fell 5.8% to E179.2m ($238m) and managed services revenue grew 32.7% to E37.3m ($49.5m). Major enterprise revenue grew 2.4% to E172.3m ($229m), SME revenue fell 4.4% to E115.1m ($153m), and wholesale revenue grew 5.4% to E129m ($171m).
The company formed a partnership with Alcatel-Lucent during the quarter to offer Ethernet services in New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Newark as part of its Ethernet services expansion into the US.
Rakesh Bhasin, chief executive at Colt Telecom, said: With the proceeds of the Open Offer, Colt now has a significantly improved financial position and we were able to repay all of our outstanding debt in April. We will continue to manage our business tightly through the challenging trading conditions that are forecast for the business environment as a whole in 2009.
