MetroPCS reports first quarter results, operating income rises 10% over last year

The nation's fifth largest carrier, MetroPCS, reported first quarter earnings on Wednesday just hours after the company's shareholders voted to accept the merger with the nation's fourth largest carrier, T-Mobile. Under terms of the deal, each MetroPCS shareholder gets $4.06 in cash, and altogether they will own 26% of the merged company. As the parent company of T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom will own 74% of the combined outfit.

Meanwhile, MetroPCS reported that Q1 revenue came in at $1.3 billion, a gain of 1% over the top-line number tallied in 2012. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, otherwise known as EBITDA, rose 11% year-over-year to $291 million. EBITDA margin came in at 26.4% for the period, up from the prior year's 22.6% and the average monthly invoice rose 40 cents from the 2012 period to $40.96. Operating income was reported as $108 million for the first quarter, which signified a gain of 10% from last year. At 2.9%, the pre-paid carrier set a record for the lowest quarterly churn in company history. 4G LTE subscribers now represent 39% of all MetroPCS customers, which works out to more than 3.5 million customers. The company closed the first quarter with 9 million subscribers.

With the MetroPCS/T-Mobile deal scheduled to close on April 30th, this will be the last full quarterly report that MetroPCS will issue as an independent company.

source: MetroPCS