Telewest Chief Sees Rosy Future Despite £701m Losses

Adam Singer, chief executive of cable company Telewest Communications, this morning described events in the last twelve months as the business equivalent of ‘changing jobs, getting married and giving birth all in one year.’ He was referring to Telewest’s move from analogue to digital, the merger with Flextech and the roll-out of its unmetered high-speed internet service.

Singer also said that Telewest has been passing through a difficult initial stage, transforming an analogue business into a digital one. A difficult and expensive transition judging by the today’s financial results. Loss before tax at the group reached a huge £701 million last year, up from £530 million in 1999. At the same time turnover rose by 42.2% to £1.13 billion and earnings were up 11.3% £247 million.

In fact, despite the losses, Singer is pretty upbeat about Telewest’s position. “Cable is in a unique position to deliver bundled services because of the reach and quality of our network. We still have a long way to go in improving products and service, but there is now a permission to believe we can do it. We are only at the beginning of the broadband revolution [and] I passionately believe that Telewest is the perfect place to generate this revolution,” he enthused.

Despite the optimistic outlook, the markets are generally down on telecoms stock and Telewest had dropped 4¼p to 113¾p by late morning.

Telewest Communications: 01483 750 900