Telecom Plus H1 growth plan gains momentum, reiterates FY guidance

(Sharecast News) - Multi-service utility provider Telecom Plus said on Tuesday that it had delivered encouraging early progress against its new fiveyear growth plan, reporting faster customer additions, a stronger partner network and improving crosssell activity in the first half, while reiterating fullyear profit guidance.

Telecom Plus' multiservice customer base grew at an annualised rate of over 11% to around 526,000, ahead of its 10%plus FY27 target and roughly three times the pace achieved last year. Singleservice customers rose at an annualised 8.5%, taking total organic customers to about 1.32m.

Partner activity also strengthened, with monthly active partners up 15% to roughly 4,900, total partner numbers rising to more than 88,000, and a record 6,000 attendees at the firm's September sales conference, where new mobile offers and incentive schemes were unveiled.

Crossselling delivered around 25,000 additional core services in H1, keeping the group on track for its FY27 goal, while insurance returned to modest growth ahead of a planned motor launch in H2.

The FTSE 250-listed company reiterated guidance for £80m to £90m of adjusted pretax profit in FY27, with earnings expected to remain heavily secondhalf weighted. Net debt to EBITDA was forecast at around 1.5x at yearend, falling toward 1.0x over the plan period.

Telecom Plus added that its £40m buyback had repurchased about 3.8m shares at an average 821.24p, with £9m still to deploy, and confirmed FY27 shareholder distributions would remain weighted to H2, split roughly 40/60 between interim and final payments, with buybacks and dividends contributing roughly half each at current shareprice levels.

As of 0845 BST, Telecom Plus shares were up 4.48% at 862p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

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