TPG profits boom pre-iiNet

Australia's second largest broadband provider TPG boosted its net profit and revenue in the past financial year, according to its last set of financial results prior to acquiring rival internet service provider iiNet.

TPG posted a net profit jump of 31 percent to $224.1 million in the fiscal year ending July 2015, and a revenue gain of $1.27 billion - also a 31 percent rise.

Its consumer business grew to $239.7 million EBITDA from $205.6 million in the fiscal year, driven by "organic" broadband subscriber growth and a jump in average revenue per user.

TPG's consumer customer base jumped by 73,000, not including 31,000 ADSL and 42,000 NBN new users. At the end of the financial year it had 821,000 broadband customers and 320,000 mobile subscribers.

Combined with iiNet's 989,000 subscribers, TPG now boasts just over 1.8 million broadband customers.

The company's business division also performed well in FY15, with EBITDA rising 52 percent to $242.3 million. The growth was predominantly a result of TPG's late 2013 AAPT acquisition.

TPG's directors said they expected "continued organic growth" in FY16, but were unable to forecast likely financial results with any certainty given the how recent the iiNet acquisition still is. They therefore declined to provide specific guidance.

iiNet 'game plan'

TPG bought iiNet for $1.56 billion. The acquisition was approved by a court in late August and became effective as of August 24.

The company has previously promised to retain the iiNet brand, and in its investor presentation today revealed it would similarly preserve the Internode and Westnet brands.

But it also revealed it will move iiNet's enterprise and government operations into TPG's own sales group. It said it would 'leverage' the ISP's strength in the small business market.

Its "game plan" will involve consolidating and improving IT systems, maintaining call centres to ensure iiNet's reputation for customer service is upheld, and maximising the use of the TPG group's infrastructure, it said.