MONTABAUR (dpa-AFX) - United Internet AG (UDIRF.PK) reported that its earnings before interest and taxes or EBIT for the first nine months of 2018 increased by 14.0% to 582.8 million euros (acc. to IFRS 15) from 325.3 million euros in the comparable prior-year figure acc. to IAS 18.
Earnings per share for the first nine months of 2017 and the first nine months of 2018 were dominated by various special items. In the previous year, non-cash impairment charges of 19.8 million euros on Rocket Internet shares held (EPS effect: EUR -0.10) and an extraordinary result of EUR 303.9 million from M&A activities (EPS effect: EUR +1.52) had a net positive impact on EPS, while there was a negative impact on EPS in the first nine months of 2018 from a non-cash impairment charges of EUR 216.2 million on Tele Columbus shares held which was conducted in the third quarter of 2018 (EPS effect: EUR -1.08).
Adjusted for the special items, earnings per share fell to 1.37 euros from 1.46 euros. This was due to the strong increase in minority interests as a result of the 33% stake of Warburg Pincus in the Business Applications division and the 27% stake of minority shareholders in 1&1 Drillisch AG, and thus in the Consumer Access business.
In addition, there were increased PPA writedowns relating mainly to the acquisition of Versatel and the Strato and Drillisch takeovers in 2017. Without consideration of these PPA writedowns and the above mentioned special items, earnings per share rose by 8.6% from 1.63 euros in the previous year to 1.77 euros.
All in all, the number of fee-based customer contracts was raised by 1.01 million to 23.65 million contracts.
'Our key performance figures for sales and earnings made good progress in the first nine months of 2018. We are still on course to meet our full-year targets for 2018,' states Ralph Dommermuth, CEO of United Internet, in his summary of the fiscal year so far.
Consolidated sales grew by 26.8% to 3.82 billion euros (acc. to IFRS15) in the first nine months of 2018 from 3.01 billion euros (acc. to IAS 18) in the previous year.
On a pro forma basis, including Strato and Drillisch, sales rose by 10.2% to 3.82 billion euros (acc. to IFRS 15) from 3.46 billion euros (acc. to IAS 18) in the previous year.
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