The French 'teleco' Iliad, created by businessman Xavier Niel, recorded an adjusted net profit of 92 million euros in the first quarter of the year, which implies an advance of 39% compared to the result obtained in the same period of the previous year, according to the company announced this Thursday.
The group's accounts also show consolidated revenues of 2,608 million euros between January and March, an increase of 2.9% compared to the 2,535 million euros invoiced in the first quarter of last year.
By geographical areas, 1,654 million euros came from the French market, with a year-on-year rebound of 1.2%. In Poland, invoicing reached 626 million euros, 3.1% more, while in Italy, revenues totaled 331 million euros, which represents a growth of 11.2%.
As for the consolidated gross operating profit after leases (Ebitdaal), this stood at 942 million euros, 1.2% above the 931 million euros recorded in the first quarter of the previous year.
The CEO of Iliad, Thomas Reynaud, stressed that "the Iliad group continues its transformation". "We innovate for our subscribers and apply our long-term industrial vision. This quarter's results demonstrate this: our offers stand out in all our European markets, especially in France with the launch of Free Max, and our commercial momentum validates our model," he added.
Reynaud also pointed out that in France the company is involved in debates about sector consolidation, although he stressed that the outcome of that process remains uncertain. He also remarked that investments in 'cloud', data centers and artificial intelligence "are already bearing fruit and paving the way for our future growth".
AION Consortium to boost AI in Europe
The Ardian fund, Artefact, Bull, Capgemini, the Électricité de France (EDF) and Iliad groups, together with Orange and Scaleway, have formed the AION consortium to present France's candidacy within the European Union (EU) artificial intelligence (AI) gigafactories initiative.
With the aim of responding to the rapid expansion of AI and the strong increase in demand for computing capacity, the AION consortium brings together the key capabilities needed to develop next-generation European infrastructures.
AION will also have the support of a broad ecosystem of technological, academic, and industrial partners, as well as user companies such as Crédit Agricole, Equans, Future4Care, GENCI, Hugging Face, INRIA, Kyutai, LightOn, Multiverse Computing, Nokia, Opcore, Quandela, PariSanté Campus, Schneider Electric, SiPearl, Sopra Steria, Verne, VSORA, and ZML.