Paris, March 22, 2022 – 8:00 a.m.
2021 was a particularly busy year for the iliad Group, with structural changes, commercial launches, massive capex, and environmental projects. Our investments in our infrastructure and our sales and marketing strategy drove strong performances at all levels and in all of our geographies, confirming the Group’s ability to deliver profitable and sustainable growth.
The Group is remaining true to its values of innovation and market-winning strategies. This can be seen with Play’s successful integration and the acquisition of UPC Poland (currently in the finalization phase) – in the aim of the Group becoming Poland’s convergence leader – as well as the launches of Free Flex and Free Pro in France, the Group’s new growth drivers, and the Fixed business in Italy on January 25, 2022.
In addition, at a time when the energy market is becoming increasingly critical, we are actively pursuing the implementation of our Climate strategy with the support of our 16,500 employees1 in Europe.
Lastly, our delisting from the Paris Stock Exchange, which was officially completed on October 14, 2021, has given us more independence and we have a solid financial position.
In 2021, in each of its three host countries, the Group recorded overall growth in its revenues, subscriber base and EBITDAaL. In France, the acceleration of our capex program during the year consolidated the foundations for our sustainable growth in the mid-term, as reflected in the following:
- Pro forma like-for-like growth2 for Services revenues came to 5.5% for the full year, and 5.8% excluding the regulatory impacts in Poland. The year-on-year growth figures for Services revenues (i.e., excluding sales of devices) were 4.5% in France, 21.9% in Italy and 2.2% in Poland (4.2% excluding the regulatory impact).
- The Group’s active subscriber base increased by 2.03 million units, with 1.7 million mobile subscribers and 345,000 fixed subscribers. In France, the active subscriber base was 439,000 units higher year on year, with outstanding performances for the Free 4G/5G plan and Fiber. In Italy, despite ongoing fierce competition, we were able to sign up 1.3 million new subscribers during the year. In Poland, Play’s performance swung up, with 181,000 new active subscribers, including 131,000 on plans.
- Consolidated EBITDAaL advanced by 51% to €2.95 billion, with all three of our host countries contributing to the rise. Operating cash flow increased more than six-fold to €666 million, despite much higher capex in France, bearing in mind that this outlay will boost our competitiveness and widen our market share in the B2B and mobile markets.
- After iliad Holding’s successful placement of a c. €3.7 billion quadruple-tranche bond issue, iliad delisted, giving the Group more independence, flexibility and potential. With a leverage ratio of 2.7x at end-2021 – a 0.5x improvement in the space of 12 months – the Group has confirmed its ability to combine external growth with strict financial discipline, and the forthcoming integration of UPC Poland fits seamlessly with this approach.
Commenting on iliad’s performance, Thomas Reynaud, the Group’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “2021 was a year of transformation for iliad. We gained more independence by delisting, we pursued our European strategy, we addressed new market segments with the Cloud and B2B, and we saw strong sales and marketing successes in all three of our host countries. In 2022, as well as focusing on our many operational imperatives, we will continue to work hard to ensure that our Group remains people-focused, to keep our uniqueness, to reinforce our European dimension and to successfully carry out our environmental transition.”
