freenet AG published its interim report for the second quarter of 2015 today, as well as its figures for the first six months of the year, and confirmed its outlook for the financial years 2015 and 2016.

The company generated Group revenue of 752.5 million euros in the second quarter of 2015 and of 1,501.0 million euros in the first six months as a whole. This constitutes an increase of 3.9 per cent. This positive revenue trend results from the increased size of the contract customer base, accompanied by almost constant monthly revenue per customer, as well as from growing revenue in the digital lifestyle field. The mobile communications segment remained dominant in the Group, accounting for 98.17 per cent of its revenue.

Group EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) increased to 89.1 million euros in the second quarter and was in line with expectations for the first half of the year at 175 million euros.

The customer ownership figures - in which the particularly high-value contract customer segment and the discount segment (no-frills) are concentrated, and which serve as an important control parameter in the company - were increased year-on-year by around 264,000 customers to 9.11 million. The post-paid portfolio accounted for 6.16 million participants as at 30 June 2015, thereby generating growth for the twelfth successive quarter.

In the second quarter of 2015, the average monthly revenue per contract customer (postpaid ARPU) of 21.4 euros was 0.3 euros higher than in the first quarter.

"A growing customer base and stable revenue per customer combine to form the backbone of freenet AG's sustained profitable development", explains Christoph Vilanek, CEO of freenet AG, "Accordingly, I am very satisfied with developments in the first half of 2015."

Free cash flow* increased by 5 million euros in comparison with the first half of 2014 to 136.3 million euros.
"Despite the substantial investments in our customer base, we were able to achieve very good business results in the first half of 2015. As these results were also generally in line with our expectations at the beginning of the year, we hereby confirm our earnings and cash flow forecast for the current financial year and also for 2016", says Joachim Preisig, CFO of freenet AG.

The full interim report for the second quarter of 2015 will soon be available for download at www.freenet-group.de/investor.

* Free cash flow is defined as cash flow from current operating activities, less investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, plus the cash inflows from disposals of intangible assets and property, plant and equipment.

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