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Alternative network ISP CommunityFibre (CF) has finally published – much earlier than before – their full annual accounts to the end of 2024. The results reveal that their 5Gbps speed full (FTTP) broadband network ended the year with a coverage of 1.342 million homes (plus c.200k businesses) and residential customers of 336,000 (25% take-up). But employees fell to 737 (2023: 930).
The provider, which is currently being backed by funding of around £1bn, has had a rough couple of years due to the rising cost of build, strong market competition and high interest rates (a common challenge in the market). All of this has caused a previous slowdown in network build and related redundancies (here and here), which resulted in CF pivoting their strategy to focus more on growing customer uptake.
However, earlier this month CF published a preview of their annual accounts (here), which did highlight some positives (e.g. going EBITDA positive). But we’ve had to wait a couple more weeks before Companies House published the full report, which finally enables us to give a wider summary of their results.
The good news is that that their greater focus on commercialisation is indeed starting to pay off. In particular, take-up on the residential side of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network seems to have grown from 14.2% in 2022, to 17.2% in 2023 and in 2024 they’ve now finally gone a shade above 25%. But we can also see the impact of prior redundancies and losses.
Summary of Community Fibre’s 2024 Results
➤ Total committed debt facility of £810m, with £714m drawn
➤ Revenue grew by 82.2% to £76m (2023: £41.7m)
➤ Gross profit increased by 87% to £65.9m (2023: 86% and £35.8m)
➤ Total employees fell to 737 (2023: 930)
➤ Total losses before tax fell to £118.5m (2023: £134.6m)
➤ Residential premises passed grew to 1,342,000 (2023: 1,288,000)
➤ Residential customers connected grew to 336,000 (2023: 222,000)
➤ Total non-current assets of £629.32m (2023: £604m)
➤ Total current assets of £36.84m (2023: £35.9m)