Nextel Partners Inc. reported second-quarter results in line with analysts and company estimates and reiterated its previously announced guidance for full-year results.
During the second quarter, Nextel Partners said it added 89,000 subscribers, which was slightly below the 90,500 customers the carrier added during the second quarter of 2002, but pushed Nextel Partners’ customer base beyond the 1 million subscriber mark during the quarter. The company also raised its customer growth forecasts for the year by an additional 5,000 subscribers and said it expects to exit 2003 with 1.2 million customers.
Customer churn remained steady at 1.6 percent compared with the second quarter of last year and dropped slightly from the 1.7 percent the carrier posted during the first quarter of this year. Nextel Partners’ management said it expects customer churn to remain below 1.9 percent for the rest of this year.
Nextel Partners also reported $66 in average revenue per user during the second quarter, which was an increase from the $65 the carrier reported during the first three months of this year but down from the $69 posted during the second quarter of 2002. Nextel Partners did note its lifetime revenue per subscriber remained among the highest in the industry at $4,125.
Second-quarter revenues increased from $161.1 million last year to $234.3 million this year with nearly all of the increase coming from increased service revenues. Net loss also increased from $75 million during the second quarter of 2002, or 31 cents per share, to a loss of $110 million this year, or 44 cents per share. Nextel Partners’ management noted that without the inclusion of a loss on early debt retirement during the second quarter, net losses would have dropped to $40.8 million this year.
Nextel Partners also announced plans to sell $125 million of convertible senior notes due 2009 and grant initial purchasers an over-allotment option to purchase an additional $25 million principal amount of the notes. The carrier said it would use net proceeds from the offering for general working capital and opportunistic repurchases of currently outstanding notes.
