Financial Trends: Updated Data, Integra, and a New Chart

This quarter’s data update for my competitive telecom trends pages is complete with the exception of Zayo, for whom it was the end of a fiscal year and hence we’ll have to wait a few weeks yet.  AboveNet’s data moves to the background since its purchase by Zayo, but to replace it I’ve added Integra Telecom which has added both recent financials and also metro fiber maps to its website.  And here’s a first look at a new chart of the ratio of Net Debt to Annualized Adjusted EBITDA across the sector:

Net Debt/EBITDA For Competitive Network Operators

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Level 3 sits on top of course, recently trending downward with the GLBC integration toward their goal of a ratio between 3 and 5.  You can see why too, as if they make it they’ll finally have neighbors, since just below 4 is where Windstream, Lumos, and Integra Telecom each sit.  Then there’s another bunching just below 2, where tw telecom, Cogent, and Earthlink congregate.  And below zero (since they have little or no debt and a cash balance) are Cbeyond and Inteliquent, which haven’t used the debt markets much at all.  You can turn on the display for PAETEC, Global Crossing, AboveNet, XO, and Deltacom if you are curious where they fell on this plot.

At the moment, I’m still tweaking this one prior to adding it the main page.  There may be some other companies whose data I can add.  Note that for XO the net debt includes preferred shares since it needed to be in a bucket other than the marketcap for EV calculations elsewhere.  As elsewhere, I went with annualized adjusted EBITDA rather than trailing twelve months in order to better adjust to M&A in the sector.

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Categories: Financials