GO noted that this continued growth in revenues has been driven by strategic investments both in Malta as well as Cyprus. These significant investments in its networks and support solutions, processes and media content, have continued to improve the customer experience and to enhance the Group's product line-up.
In the Maltese market, the ongoing rollout of Fibre-to-the-Home is leading to growth in GO's Broadband and TV client base, as the reach of FTTH extends to additional towns and villages and now exceeds 50,000 homes passed. GO also continues to enjoy a solid customer base of fixed-voice connections.
Moreover GO, which has Malta's only fibre connected 4G network, has over the past two years made significant investments in mobile. This enables GO's mobile customers to enjoy the fastest mobile network, as recently certified by Net Check, an independent German firm that specialises in evaluating the quality of mobile networks.
The enhanced customer experience is leading to a larger mobile customer base and growth in usage of mobile data. These investments are matched by ongoing improvements in GO's product portfolio and customer service. Consequently, the number of customer connections has further increased to over 530,000, a significant portion of which through bundled services.
In the Business segment, GO continues to lead in providing total communications solutions. Continued investment in Kinetix and in a new state-of-the-art data centre which is currently being constructed will further strengthen the Group's infrastructure which is already unmatched in terms of capabilities, resiliency and redundancy.
In Cyprus, Cablenet continues to invest in expanding its network to reach additional towns and suburbs and to enhance network resiliency; these investments will be stepped up in the coming years. Cablenet's customer base continues to grow and now exceeds 58,000. As a result, Cablenet is also delivering growth in revenue and profitability.
Cost of sales and administration costs amounted to €67m, an increase of €2.1m over the comparative period. This increase in costs is primarily directly related to increased retail activity while maintaining a strong focus on cost containment.
For the period under review the Group is reporting a profit before tax of €13.5m. Although this represents a reduction over the profit of €17.1m reported for the comparative period, the reduction is due to the comparative results including an exceptional gain of €6.1m arising on the re-measurement of the investment in Cablenet following further acquisition of shares in January 2016.
Cash generation from operations remains strong across the entire Group and amounted to €28.6m during the period under review. The Group continues to enjoy a healthy financial position; as at 30 June the Group had a total asset base of €247.6m which is 43.2% funded through equity. During the first six months of 2017, borrowings net of cash holdings decreased from €64.1m as at 31 December 2016 to €58.2m as at 30 June.
GO CEO Attila Keszeg, said: "GO is a fantastic company with many great people, all of whom contribute to achieving such positive results. As Malta's communications services provider GO will, as it always has done, meet the changing and growing needs of our domestic and business customers, by investing in infrastructure, systems and people. GO remains totally committed to Malta and to providing the infrastructure and services the country needs to continue to succeed going forward."
GO chairman Nizar Bouguila said: "We are naturally satisfied with these positive results across both of our markets in Malta and Cyprus. The fact that our Group's performance is consistently robust is encouraging. It also validates our clear and focussed long-term strategy of investment and technological innovation. Furthermore, GO's positive track record demonstrates that it is indeed possible for a Malta-based telecommunications business to deliver strong value to clients, employees and shareholders while also committing to the substantial investments which will enable Malta to keep abreast in the future."