Virgin Media posts strongest growth in four years

Virgin Media gained 9,100 new customers during its second financial quarter

Virgin Media has posted its best performance in four years, with second-quarter results showing a 7.1 per cent rise in revenues to £964m.

The ISP saw growth in its mobile and business sectors, giving the company its best results since the merger with NTL and Telewest.

Virgin said that its customer base grew by 9,100 subscribers during what the firm claimed is usually its weakest quarter.

The company now has over 650,000 customers on its 20Mbit/s or 50Mbit/s broadband services, up 43 per cent year on year, and increased its overall broadband base by 28,100 to 4.21 million.

Virgin continues to jockey with BT over claims to be the largest broadband provider in the UK.

"A growing base of customers, combined with improvements in business and mobile revenues, drove strong growth," said Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett.

"We will continue to differentiate our propositions by proactively exploiting the advantages of our network and our mobile capability."

The strong results have also bolstered Virgin Media's free cash flow, which rose 37.3 per cent to £109m, as well as its operating income, which rose from a lowly £9m last year to £80m this year.

The board of directors has authorised the repurchase of up to £375m worth of common stock over the next 12 months to return to shareholders.

Virgin Media outperformed BT in an independent review of broadband speeds published yesterday by Ofcom.