Mobile crash leaves Virgin Media nursing GBP330 million loss

Aug 08, 2008 (Daily Mail - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- VMED | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Aug. 8--Cable giant Virgin Media crashed into a GBP330m loss in the second quarter after admitting that its mobile phone division had lost a third of its value in just two years.

In a shock move, the group slashed GBP366m off the value of its Virgin Mobile wing, which predecessor NTL bought for nearly GBP1bn pounds in June 2006.

That deal handed Sir Richard Branson a 10pc stake in the cable group, along with a promise that a handful of the billionaire's marketing "fairy dust" would finally transform the fortunes of NTL.

But the whopping writedown will revive accusations that the perennial underachiever paid over the odds for a mobile business that targeted the less profitable pay-as-you go users and doesn't even own a network.

Boss Neil Berkett said he remains "absolutely convinced" of the merits of selling combined packages of homephone, mobile, TV and broadband to consumers.

However, the fact that just 8pc of its 4.7m subscribers take all four services from Virgin won't win over the sceptics, who say the "four-play" concept was destined to be an embarrassing flop.

Since stepping up to the top job last August, Berkett has staunched the flood of customers walking away.

The number of subscribers who cancelled their service slowed to 19,500 in the second quarter, compared to over 70,000 in the same period last year. And underlying profits rose a better-than- expected 6pc to GBP333m.

There are also signs that Britain's only cable provider is beginning to shed the reputation for abysmal customer service that has dogged the industry since its inception in the mid-1980s.

Both Virgin and arch rival BSkyB (a penny lower to 462 3/4p) believe they are well placed to weather the economic downturn. With money tight, consumers will spend much more time at home in front of the telly, they say.

T-Mobile, which rents airtime on its network to Virgin Mobile, revealed that its UK turnover rose just 0.9pc to GBP1.5bn amid fierce competition from market leader O2 and Vodafone (down 1.8p to 139.35p).

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