primacom reports strong trading momentum

- First half year revenue increased by 39.7% to €65.9 million

- Continued increase in EBITDA - up 54.2% to €27.0 million

- Investment in future-proofed, high speed infrastructure driving rapid growth in triple play revenues - more than 80% of revenues now derived from backbone-connected network

- Integration of DTK on track - hard synergies expected from January 2015 onwards

- CEO Joachim Grendel: We are reaping the rewards of our investment and are confident of playing a leading role in the ongoing evolution of the sector

Leipzig, 12 November 2014- primacom, the fourth largest cable network operator in Germany, today announced strong growth in customer numbers, revenues and earnings for the first half of its current financial year, driven by increased penetration of its triple play offering across its network and the acquisition of DTK group, the sixth largest player in the market.

Revenues grew by 39.7% to €65.9 million in the six month period from January to June 2014. EBITDA increased by 54.2% to €27.0 million over the same period driven by robust growth from new digital services (HD TV, broadband internet and telephony), which increased by 38.5% year on year in the first half, combined with rigorous cost management to drive the profitability improvement. Excluding the impact of subscribers acquired with DTK, revenues grew by 6.2% to €50.1 million and EBITDA grew by 14.1% to €20.0 million.

Joachim Grendel, primacom CEO, said: "Our first half performance underlines the significant progress made by PrimaCom over the past three years, as our investment in our own state-of-the-art IP capable network has transformed our growth trajectory. Creating an integrated Level 3 / Level 4 provider is driving growth of higher value triple play services, while ensuring that the business has the technological capability to meet customer needs far into the future. More than 80% of our EBITDA and cash flow now comes from the backbone-connected part of our business a level consistent with that achieved by the two largest players in our market and significantly ahead of other peers. We believe that the quality of our infrastructure represents both an enduring competitive advantage and a significant differentiator for our business."

primacom's growth strategy is focused on maximising returns from its network, which has been upgraded and expanded significantly in recent years, generating a 47% increase in the number of IP capable homes in the period 2010 to 2014. primacom's success in upselling higher value digital services, especially its triple play offering, helped drive blended subscriber ARPU for H1'14 to €16.59, a year-on-year growth of 6.9%. Customer numbers for triple play - broadband internet, HD television and fixed-line telephony services - grew by 27.5% year-on-year in the period.

primacom completed the acquisition of DTK group, a national provider of broadband internet, HD television and fixed-line telephony services, on 30 April 2014. The acquisition expanded primacom's number of reachable households by 30 percent to approximately 1.2 million and reinforced its proposition to commercial housing and real estate customers. Integration of DTK will be completed on schedule in December and primacom expects to begin capturing the significant synergy benefits identified at the time of the acquisition from January 2015 onwards.

Joachim Grendel said: "The acquisition of DTK clearly demonstrates our intention to play a leading role in the ongoing consolidation of the regional cable media sector in Germany and has formed a strong enlarged group with a highly complementary geographical and infrastructure fit."

In addition, the primacom management team was strengthened in the period with appointment of two senior executives with proven experience in the German cable media sector - Jens Müller as Chief Financial Officer and Ludwig Modra as Chief Technology Officer. Furthermore Renaat Berckmoes, former CFO of Telenet AG in Belgium has joined the advisory board of primacom effective October.

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