US telecommunications company Worldcom Inc seems to finally be justifying the faith of its investors, with over 60% growth in its revenues and positive earnings. The trend in bottom line profit isn’t going to last long however as Worldcom has announced that it will be taking a $429m exceptional charge in the first quarter of 1998, for the acquisition of CompuServe Corp. It is also likely to take a charge if the MCI Communications Inc acquisition clears regulatory approval in July. The company’s finances have been skewed for a while, as it has been on the acquisition trail, and took a $2.1bn charge for the $14bn merger with MFS Communications Inc in 1996. Now WorldCom has minimal charges appearing in its accounts, and has produced blinding figures in the fourth-quarter with earnings of $142.9m, and revenue up 62.2% at $2.0bn. For the year, earnings were $383.7m and revenue up 63.9% to $7.35bn. Net earnings per share rose to $0.15 in the quarter – hitting the First Call consensus on the head and amounted to $0.40 for the year. WorldCom is also managing to grow in all the right places, with pro forma international revenues up 55.9% to $237m in the quarter, and up 74.5% to $818m in the year. The most impressive growth is in WorldCom’s internet operations, growing 101.1% to $181.9m in the quarter, and up 119.8% to $818.5m in the year.
