Apr, 2002 : Broadwing?s First Quarter Results Show Improvement

📅 April 17, 2002 - Broadwing Inc. (broadwing.com -> lumen.com), an integrated communications company, announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2002 on Wednesday. While the company's revenue decreased 4 percent to $537 million, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 2 percent to $247 million.

?We are encouraged by the trends we saw in the first quarter,'' says Rick Ellenberger, Broadwing Inc. chairman-elect and CEO. ?Our core businesses were strengthened, our capital spending of $53 million was the lowest ever, we retired $284 million of our bank debt, and the 4 percent revenue decline was primarily attributable to our earlier disclosed decision to exit the construction business. The decisive actions we undertook to restructure our business are generating measurable cost savings as every one of our businesses achieved good sequential EBITDA improvement.''
Among the individual operations of Broadwing to show positive EBITDA growth were its Cincinnati-based operations, its local communications services, wireless services, broadband services and other communications services.
The company announced earlier in the year that it sold its yellow page directory business for $345 million. Broadwing says it has restated all prior periods to reflect the directory business as a discontinued operation. The company's bank debt was reduced by 15 percent as a result.
In total, says Broadwing, other communications services businesses increased revenue 8 percent over the first quarter of 2001 to $20 million, while EBITDA was essentially breakeven.
?I am pleased by our continued success in expanding the diversity of our product set and customer segments,'' says Kevin Mooney, the company's chief operating officer. ?During the quarter, we saw some weakness in our carrier business offset by solid execution in our consumer and enterprise businesses. I am also pleased with how rapidly we implemented our reorganization and moved up market in the enterprise sector.''
During the quarter, Broadwing recorded an increase to its fourth quarter 2001 restructure charge of $17 million for additional vendor contract termination charges.
The company reported earnings per share of $0.83 for the period. And excluding non-recurring gains, restructuring charges and discontinued operations from 2002 and 2001, the company's loss of $0.17 per share is a $0.01 per share improvement over its loss in the first quarter of 2001.