CityFibre customer numbers surge in first half

(ShareCast News) - Fibre optic infrastructure designer, builder, owner, and operator CityFibre posted a trading update for the six months to 30 June on Monday, reporting continued strong demand for its national fibre infrastructure in the first half, booking record levels of new orders.The AIM-traded company said initial contract value added in the first six months totaled £53.8m, more than double the £23.2m added in all of 2015 and more than six times the £8.1m added in the first half of 2015.New contracts signed in the period comprised 3,702 new customer connections, CityFibre said, more than three times the 1,110 sold in all of 2015 and over eight times the 458 added in the first half of last year.Of the new connections sold, new anchor contracts represented 55%, and incremental business comprised 45%.Excluding the legacy KCOM customer connections in the acquired footprint, 93% of new connections sold in the period were incremental sales on existing assets, CityFibre said."The company ended the first half with 49 service provider relationships, up from 33 one year ago and 41 at the end of 2015," CityFibre's board confirmed in a statement."Notable additions in the period were new trading relationships with Level 3 and SSE Enterprise Telecoms, who join CityFibre's growing ranks of national partners, including KCOM, Vodafone, MBNL, Three UK, Capita, Serco, Interoute, and Logicalis."The company's medium-term target of a 50-city footprint is fully funded by the £80m equity placing and debt facilities of up to £165m closed in January, the board noted."Financial performance of the group in the first half is in line with expectations for the full year."The company will announce financial results for the six months to 30 June on Monday 26 September," the board confirmed.