Nothing is going well for SFR. The operator in the red square continues his descent into hell, with a further loss of 109,000 mobile subscribers in the third quarter of 2024. If this hemorrhage marks a slowdown compared to the 300,000 departures recorded in the previous quarter, the annual results remain alarming. More than a million customers have left the operator in twelve months, making it the only major player in the sector to post a negative balance.
The financial results published this Wednesday reflect this worrying trend. SFR's overall turnover fell by 4.7%, amounting to 2.5 billion euros. EBITDA, a key indicator of operational performance, collapsed by 9.9%, mainly weighed down by the fall in revenues from mobile services. This historic branch of the operator shows a worrying decline of 4.4% to 902 million euros.
The only bright spot in this gloomy picture: the fixed activity resisted with growth of 2.5% to 667 million euros. However, this performance is not enough to compensate for the losses recorded on mobile, where SFR only has 19.62 million subscribers.
In this delicate context, the Altice group, parent company of SFR, is focusing its efforts on reducing its colossal debt of 24 billion euros. Patrick Drahi's company is increasing the number of sales of strategic assets. Latest transaction: the recent sale of Teads to Outbrain for $1 billion. The announced sale of Geodesia's construction activities in Germany is also part of this logic of debt reduction.
A market in full restructuring
SFR also owes these poor results to increasingly solid competition. Bouygues Telecom, which has just released a new fiber offer on the market, is positioning itself as a serious challenger. The operator displays impressive commercial momentum: it captured 170,000 new mobile subscribers in the third quarter. The acquisition of La Poste Mobile for 950 million euros, which will bring it 2.4 million additional customers by the end of 2024, could shake up the established hierarchy.
For its part, Free maintains its upward trajectory with remarkable growth of 8.5% in its revenues in France, reaching 2.55 billion euros. Its EBITDAAL has increased by 12.1% to 1.7 billion since the start of the year, even if the pace of recruitment slows down with 131,000 net new customers, compared to 274,000 the previous year.
Orange, historic leader, posted modest growth of 1.3% in France to 4.49 billion euros, with 83,000 new mobile subscribers. The historic operator, however, managed to reverse the trend on landlines, with 6,000 new customers in the third quarter after a difficult year.
This crisis at SFR raises fundamental questions about its strategic positioning. The operator, who once embodied modernity for “Parisian white-collar workers”, is today struggling to find its place in the face of competitors with clearly defined positions. Orange capitalizes on the quality of its network, Free on fixed price innovation, and Bouygues Telecom on an effective “good deals” strategy.
Sector analysts emphasize that the situation remains structurally complex for all operators, with low volumes and constant pressure on revenue per subscriber. Nevertheless, most players manage to maintain their results, mainly by capturing disappointed SFR customers and optimizing their costs. The misfortune of one person makes the happiness of others.
- SFR records a loss of 109,000 mobile customers in Q3 2024, bringing the total to more than a million departures over one year
- Financial results deteriorate with turnover down 4.7% and EBITDA down 9.9%
- The market is being recomposed with the emergence of Bouygues Telecom as a serious challenger, notably thanks to the acquisition of La Poste Mobile
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