Iliad enters the top five European telco club

As well as the 10.3% increase in revenues for the first half of the year, Iliad says it recorded 1,318,000 new mobile and fixed-line subscribers (621,000 in the second quarter), which ‘significantly boosted the Group's profitability and helped to reinforce its financial solidity.’

Iliad says thanks to this it is now Europe's fifth-largest operator, according to internal estimates, with 50 million subscribers (40 million mobile and 10 million fixed-line) and that it is on course to clock €10 billion in revenues for the full year.

Region wise, revenues for France were up 9.6% (9.1% in Q2), Poland’s revenues were up 12.0% (10.3% in Q2), and Italy revenues climbed 11.5% (10.2% in Q2).

Consolidated EBITDAaL for the first half of 2024 rose to €1.86 billion, representing growth of 13.2%. Profit for the period was up 8.6% to €251 million for the period.

Operating free cash flow was up 61% in the first half of the year to €971 million, ‘allowing the Group to reinforce its financial structure, with its leverage ratio coming in at 2.8x at end-June 2024 versus 3.0x at end-2023.’

“The Iliad Group has reached a historic milestone by becoming one of Europe's top five operators,” said Thomas Reynaud, Chief Executive Officer of the Iliad Group. “We now count 50 million subscribers in France, Poland and Italy, and as many as 61 million with our investment in Swedish operator Tele24. The Odyssey 2024 plan, which has guided our roadmap over the past five years, has come to fruition. And our next Odyssey will be forged by ongoing innovation, investing in our 5G and fiber networks, and strengthening our Cloud and datacenter activities.”

Iliad declared itself Europe's sixth-biggest mobile operator when it announced the acquisition of Poland's Play in 2020, and in March this year it announced its ambitions to become Europe's fifth-largest mobile player – which armed with its latest financials it is now claiming mission accomplished on.

Update 30/8/24 09:20am: A Liberty Global spokesperson provided this statement to Telecoms.com: “Iliad dramatically under-represented Liberty Global’s fixed and mobile connections. We currently provide more than 85 million in Europe.”