CityFibre revenue increases but rising costs up fibre firm’s losses
WHOLESALE fibre operator CityFibre reported a 45.6 per cent jump in revenues during the first half of the year as it secured a number of new long-term public sector contracts for use of its network.
Despite the revenue growth CityFibre’s losses widened during the six months to 30 June, rising to £3.6m from £2.96m during the same period last year, due to the rising costs associated with its expanding business.
“We’ve had three big city wins – which are ahead of schedule – as well as the joint venture with Sky and TalkTalk in York, each one of those drives expense and headcount… but the losses were all in line with expectations based on our city wins,” chief executive Greg Mesch told City A.M. yesterday.
In April CityFibre agreed a joint venture with Sky and TalkTalk where both partners would invest £5m and CityFibre would build out a new network in York for the telecoms firms to deliver superfast broadband without relying on BT’s national network. CityFibre shares fell 0.7 per cent yesterday to 67.5p.