United Internet gets off to a good start in fiscal year 2025
Montabaur, May 12, 2025. United Internet AG got off to a good start in its fiscal year 2025. In the first quarter of 2025, the Company made further investments in new customer contracts and the development of existing customer relationships, and thus in sustainable growth. All in all, the number of fee-based customer contracts was raised by a further 150,000 contracts to 29.17 million. Of this total, 80,000 contracts were added in the Consumer Applications segment and 110,000 contracts in the Business Applications segment. However, the number of fee-based contracts in the Consumer Access segment fell by 40,000.
Adjusted for the sales contribution of the “Energy” business field, which is to be sold, sales in the first quarter of 2025 grew by 4.2% to EUR 1,630.8 million (comparable prior-year figure: EUR 1,565.0 million).
Despite a further year-on-year increase in expenses for the 1&1 mobile network, adjusted EBITDA rose slightly by 0.1% to EUR 342.6 million (comparable prior-year figure: EUR 342.1 million). The start-up costs for the 1&1 mobile network included in this figure amounted to EUR -67.0 million, compared to EUR -42.4 million in the same period last year.
In addition to network rollout costs, adjusted EBIT was also burdened by increased depreciation of EUR -179,6 million (prior year: EUR -155.0 million) resulting in particular from investments in the expansion of 1&1 Versatel’s fiber-optic network and 1&1’s mobile network. As a result, EBIT amounted to EUR 162.9 million (comparable prior-year figure: EUR 187.0 million).
There was a corresponding decline in operating earnings per share (EPS) from EUR 0.35 to EUR 0.31.
Cash capex in the first quarter of 2025 amounted to EUR 122.0 million (prior year: EUR 139.7 million).
Outlook 2025
On completion of the first quarter, United Internet AG is upgrading its full-year sales guidance for 2025. Without consideration of the “Energy” business field, which is to be sold, the Company now expects an increase in consolidated sales to approx. EUR 6.45 billion (previously: approx. EUR 6.4 billion; comparable prior-year figure: EUR 6.303 billion). EBITDA is still expected to grow to approx. EUR 1.35 billion (comparable prior-year figure: EUR 1.295 billion). Cash capex is still likely to be around EUR 800 million (prior year: EUR 774.6 million).