Just months after completing its acquisition of Columbus International, Cable and Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) has announced that its group revenue is up four per cent to US$1.8 billion for the year ended March 31, 2015.
The company said this strong performance reflects strategic progress over the year, including a 7 per cent increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of US$585 million and a successfully completed US$100 million cost reduction plan.
With the Columbus acquisition completed on March 31, CWC said integration was underway.
Commenting on the results, Phil Bentley, Chief Executive of CWC, described 2014 as “a year of transformation and growth.”
“We created a new senior executive team operating out of our new Miami hub. We developed a new vision and strategy for the group, backed by our US$1 billion Project Marlin investment programme. We began to execute a performance improvement plan and deliver our strategy to grow.
“The team’s hard work has started to deliver results as we saw top-line growth for the first time since demerger and EBITDA margins improve.” he said. Bentley said the Columbus acquisition “transforms CWC, and is one that will accelerate the delivery of our strategy across the Caribbean and Latin America.”
He added: “Columbus is an outstanding business, backed by a state-of-the-art terrestrial and submarine fibre network. Our complementary fixed line and mobile networks and our focus on providing the best customer service, bringing together the skills and capabilities of over 7,500 team members, will position us better to serve our customers and improve the ICT infrastructure of the communities in which we operate.”
Bentley said CWC is becoming a better company, a genuine quad play operator, with strong market shares in the Caribbean and Latin American markets and good long-term growth prospects across consumer, business solutions, and networks businesses. “Overall we are pleased with the results following the first year of our new strategy, but there remains much to do to realise the full potential of the business,” he said.
