Orange tops City growth forecasts
CELLPHONE firm Orange has beaten City forecasts for new customer numbers in the first quarter - but growth has slowed sharply.
New users climbed 1.27m, taking Orange's total to 40.5m. It had been expected to lure 900,000-970,000 new users. But the performance falls short on last year, in line with rival Vodafone's figures last week. Orange added 2.52m users in the three months ended March 2001.
Sales for the latest period rose 16% to e3.96bn (£2.53bn), in line with forecasts. Average revenues per user, a key measure, rose to £247 from £246 in the UK, and their decline slowed in France.
Orange added 284,000 net new customers in the UK, 38% more than the previous quarter. Orange now has 12.7m active customers in the UK, 15% up on the year-earlier period.
Deputy chief executive and chief financial officer Graham Howe said: 'These results keep Orange on track to meet our stated forecasts for 2002.
'As we reach high levels of mobile penetration and growing customer maturity, we see higher wire-free usage as mobile increasingly becomes the primary voice communication device for our customers.'
Services such as text messaging were continuing to grow, contributing 13.6% of UK revenues in the quarter, from 11.2% in 2001.
Howe said Orange expected average usage and revenue to grow as new services and handsets are launched. But 'no one should expect this to be an overnight process'.
