To answer my own question: MetroNet posts big loss as AT&T merger nears
TORONTO (CP) -- MetroNet Communications, set to merge with AT&T Canada in a $7-billion deal next month, posted a loss of $81.8 million in the first quarter as it continued to build up its national fibre-optic phone network.
But revenue grew by 850 per cent to $41 million, the company reported today.
The loss amounted to $1.78 a share and compared with 1998's first-quarter loss of $76.6 million or $1.68 a share. For all of last year, MetroNet lost $212.8 million.
In March, AT&T Canada and MetroNet announced a merger that will leave MetroNet shareholders with 69 per cent of the merged company. AT&T Corp., AT&T Canada's U.S. parent, will indirectly own 31 per cent.
"The solid growth platform we put into place last year, together with the opportunistic strategic initiatives we executed during the second half of 1998, have enabled us to launch into 1999 with extremely strong momentum," Craig Young, MetroNet's president and chief executive, said in a release.
"We are exceptionally well-positioned with the right assets, the right team and the right markets to continue our accelerating growth."
MetroNet, set to challenge Bell Canada and other carriers in local phone and business telecom service, said the quarter ended March 31 featured a 51 per cent increase in access lines in service to 89,700.
As its intercity fibre network grows, MetroNet now boasts direct access to two-thirds of the business access lines in Canada and to nearly 90 per cent of the country's corporate office headquarters.
On the Toronto stock market, MetroNet shares closed Monday at $84.80.
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