By Paul Sandle and Leo Marchandon
LONDON (Reuters) -French pay-TV company Canal+ reported a jump in free cash flow in the first half even as revenue fell by an expected 3.3%, and said it was on track to meet a full-year earnings target of about 515 million euros ($597 million).
Its shares were up 2% at 234 pence at 0920 GMT in volatile trading.
The group, which was spun off from Vivendi in December and listed in London, reported revenue of 3.09 billion euros for the six months to end-June on Tuesday.
Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes came in at 246 million euros, down 21.6% on the same period in 2024 due to the end of a UEFA Championship sublicensing deal and a one-off gain a year earlier.
CEO Maxime Saada said the strategy of combining in-house content with sports and streamers on its platform was a unique strength.
“We are now taking super-aggregation beyond Europe by extending our historic partnership with Netflix to 24 French-speaking African countries, the first deal of its kind on the continent,” he said in a statement.
Wholesale subscribers fell by 353,000 globally, offset slightly by 0.2% growth in its direct-to-consumer customer base, despite the non-renewal of Ligue 1 and Disney deals in France.
In Asia, Vietnam was a weak spot. “The Vietnam business is being closely assessed as its performance has been meaningfully affected by the market environment,” the company said.
Free cash flow rose to 370 million euros versus 128 million a year ago, benefiting from a normalisation in tax payments in France and cash optimisation.
Bank of America said the numbers were “soft at first glance but solid on an underlying basis”, citing improved core pay-TV activities and unexpectedly strong free cash flow.
The group, which produced the movie “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy”, received approval for its $2-billion takeover of South African broadcaster MultiChoice earlier this month.
It confirmed the deal was on track to close by October 8.
($1 = 0.8633 euros)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle in London and Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; Editing by Sarah Young, Kirsten Donovan and Helen Popper)
