Colt (LSE: COLT.L), a European business service provider, is upbeat about its 2010 prospects after Q3 earnings rose above 5 percent, slightly ahead of analyst expectations.
But while its earnings were up, company revenues declined 1.8 percent to $545 million, due to lower voice sales and flat data growth. Third quarter core earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose 5.4 percent to EUR 84 million ($117.8 million). Analysts forecast results of EUR 80.6 million ($112 million).
What contributed to Colt's Q3 positive results was continued cost cutting measures and increase in managed services sales.
"Improvements in revenue mix and changes to provisions in the quarter delivered strong EBITDA margins and we remain on track to deliver improved profitability for the second half of the year," said Rakesh Bhasin, CEO of Colt.
Going forward, Colt said it will take exceptional charge of around EUR 35 million ($49 million) to EUR 40 million ($56 million) to simplify its business structure by creating three divisions focused on enterprise, communication and data center services.
Each of these customer facing units will be supported by an infrastructure service division and a business service division. The Infrastructure Services Unit will integrate the current activities of Colt's network and managed services operations, along with its Technology and IT divisions, while the Business Services Unit will integrate the current activities of the India and Barcelona Shared Service Centers.
For more:
- see the earnings release
- and this related news release
- Reuters has this article
Related articles:
Sizing up the wireline industry in the third quarter 2010
COLT tries 100 Gbps Ethernet on for size
Colt enhances its European low latency routes with Infinera
XO conducts coherent 100 Gbps optical network trial
IEEE's 802.3ba standard sets stage for 40, 100 Gbps Ethernet
COLT: Cost cutting, data services offset voice losses in 09