Three Ireland blames €13m earnings hit on higher energy costs

Three Ireland saw its earnings fall by 16 per cent or €13 million in the first half of 2023 as higher energy costs and other inflationary pressures hit the company’s bottom line.

Despite the fall-off in earnings, the State’s largest mobile operator added a further 300,000 customers to its network, bringing its active customer base to 4.1 million.

The increase in customer numbers brings Three’s overall market share in the Republic up to 43.5 per cent and was driven by the continued adoption of IoT (internet of things) technologies, the company said.

In its latest half-year earnings, the telco said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) fell by 16 per cent to €70 million on the same period in 2022 “primarily related to increase in energy costs and inflationary pressures”.

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“As part of its sustainability strategy, Three continued to invest in energy-saving initiatives across the network infrastructure in 2023 which helped mitigate against energy inflation,” the company said.

Its gross margin for the six-month period rose by €1 million to €228 million, while total revenue fell by 1 per cent to €298 million.

Three said overall capital investment for the period was €47 million, bringing the total amount the company has invested in Ireland since 2015 to close to €2 billion. The company said it now had 90 per cent 5G population coverage here.

Three Ireland’s chief financial officer Simon Henry said: “Our H1 2023 financial performance was in line with projections and we were pleased to see our customer base grow from 3.8 million to 4.1 million, over the period.

“Alongside the increase in our customer base, total margin was flat against the same period last year, with revenue at €298 million, down 1 per cent from the first half of 2022, while we saw an increase in gross margin of €1 million to €228 million, compared with the first half of 2022.″