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Author: Vincent Poulbere
Bouygues Telecom recorded revenues of €4.54bn in 2005, and net revenues from networks were €4.24bn. This is an increase of 27% due to the implementation of mobile-to-mobile billing (€665m), effective since 1 January 2005. On a comparable basis (had the mobile-to-mobile billing system been in place in 2004), this is a 4% increase in network revenues.
Bouygues Telecom announced it had 8.13m customers at end 2005, 68.4% of which are postpaid. Universal Mobile has 363,000 customers as of end 2005. There were a total of 1.43m i-mode customers, including 100,000 on EDGE (launched in October 2005).
Comment: Revenue growth will be a key challenge for Bouygues Telecom in 2006. Although the implementation of mobile-to-mobile billing makes the comparison with previous years a bit difficult, the 4% growth of network revenues reported for 2005 (on a comparable basis) demonstrates that the operator has entered a phase of slow growth.
In the face of this, we have repeatedly mentioned since end 2004 the lack of new major strategic directions to drive future growth. This naturally fuels speculation about a potential sale of Bouygues Telecom by the Bouygues conglomerate. European incumbents wishing to put a foot into the French mobile market are key potential buyers, especially Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom. However, Bouygues may choose another direction, such as a link-up with a fixed operator to implement a "quadruple-play" strategy. Let's see whether the presentation of annual results on 1 March provides us with some new elements.
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