Canada-based Cogeco Cable Inc posted an 18% increase in its quarterly profit due in part to the acquisitions it made recently, Reuters reported. Cogeco Cable Inc provides cable television and internet and phone services.
In 2012, Cogeco Cable purchased Atlantic Broadband, a US cable firm. That same year it also bought Peer 1 Network Enterprises Inc, a Canada-based operator of data centers. The acquisitions, which were culminated at the end of the first and second quarters of the fiscal year that ended in August, respectively, helped bolster the revenue of the cable company to C$475 million or $437.16 million, representing a 44.9% increase, the report said.
Reuters reported that Cogeco Cable has been trying to beef up its presence in the fast-growing business of data centers as it has been losing its subscribers in its cable and telephone operations. It rivals include Rogers Communications Inc and Telus Corp. Data centers are places where server computers with large capacities and data storage systems linked through the Internet through high-bandwidth connections are housed.
Cogeco Cable lost more than 9,000 cable TV clients as 4,000 telephone customers in the country also called off their service in the quarter, the report said. Cogeco Inc, a media and telecommunications firm, owns Cogeco Cable.
The cable firm said its net profit for the first quarter that ended November 30 went up to C$49.7 million or $45.74 million. This compared with the same period a year before when it was only able to post profits of C$42.1 million. In per share terms, the increase was C$1.02 per share from 87 Canadian cents per share, the report said.
Citing Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data, analysts had forecasted that on revenue of C$478.4 million, Cogeco Cable would earn a profit of C$1.02 per share. On Monday, January 13, the company's shares closed on the Toronto Stock Exchange at C$50.32, the report said.
Join the Conversation