VersaTel Announces 1999 Results; Acquiring Network Operator in Northern Germany, Continuing Internet- and Data-Centric Focus and DSL Expansion.Business Editors AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2000 VersaTel Telecom International N.V.(NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :VRSA VRSA Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Cf Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus. )(AEX AEX See: Amsterdam Exchange :VRSA) Financial Highlights: - Completed the first phase of the Overlay Network, consisting of two STM-64 and two STM-16 fiber optic rings covering approximately 1,400 km and passing nearly 200,000 businesses. - Connected over 175 buildings to the VersaTel network, including 97 buildings through the acquisition of VEW Telnet. - Completed construction on approximately 1,700 km of fiber ready duct (8 duct construction) for the Benelux Overlay Network. - 13 business park and three city rings in service, with over 15 business parks and 10 city rings currently under construction. - Acquired five companies, including a leading alternative network operator in Germany, VEW Telnet. - Launched one of the leading Dutch ISPs, Zon, with over 400,000 subscribers to date. - Connected 19 PoP's to the VersaTel network, representing over 1,350 E-1's of interconnect capacity. Operational Highlights: - Completed the first phase of the Overlay Network, consisting of two STM-64 and two STM-16 fiber optic rings covering approximately 1,400 km and passing nearly 200,000 businesses. - Connected over 175 buildings to the VersaTel network, including 97 buildings through the acquisition of VEW Telnet. - Completed construction on approximately 1,700 km of fiber ready duct (8 duct construction) for the Benelux Overlay Network. - 13 business park and three city rings in service, with over 15 business parks and 10 city rings currently under construction. - Acquired five companies, including a leading alternative network operator in Germany, VEW Telnet. - Launched one of the leading Dutch ISPs, Zon, with over 400,000 subscribers to date. - Connected 19 PoP's to the VersaTel network, representing over 1,350 E-1's of interconnect capacity. New Developments: - Acquiring German network operator, KomTel, with access to a 1,078 km fiber network and NLG NLG The ISO 4217 currency code for the Dutch Guilder. 67.6 million in FY99 revenue, while increasing our addressable Reachable. When something is addressable, it can be identified and manipulated independently of its surroundings. For example, screen pixels and RAM memory are addressable. Each of the screen's picture elements can be individually turned on and off, and each of the memory's bytes can be market to a population of 4.5 million. Amsterdam, March 15, 2000 - VersaTel Telecom International N.V., a rapidly growing, facilities-based, competitive provider of voice, data and Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the broadband services See broadband and broadband service provider. in the Benelux and Northwest Germany, today reported record fourth quarter and year end financial and operating results. For the fourth quarter of 1999, revenues reached NLG 50.9 million and NLG 129.0 million for the year ended December 31, 1999, up 30.4 percent compared with the third quarter of 1999 (20.2 percent excluding VEW VEW Vereinigte Edelstahlwerke (Austria) VEW Vereinfachte Engere Wahl (German: simplified narrowed selection - lottery system) VEW Video Exploitation Workstation VEW View File Telnet) and 226.1 percent compared with FY1998. VersaTel's Internet subsidiaries had revenues of NLG 4.1 million for 4Q99 and NLG 8.9 million for FY1999, representing growth of 53.0 percent over 3Q99 and 896.2 percent over FY1998. In addition, the mix of data and Internet revenues increased to 46.6 percent of total revenues in 4Q99, up from 41.9 percent in 3Q99, representing the growth of VersaTel's Internet operations. In Belgium, revenues grew to NLG 4.6 million for the 4Q99 and NLG 9.0 million for FY1999, an increase of 112.0 percent over 3Q99. Total customers for VersaTel increased to over 30,000 at the end of the quarter. "This has been an exciting year for the development of VersaTel as a high bandwidth operator in the `New Economy.' Through strategic acquisitions of data and Internet network operators, growth-enabling internal initiatives like Zon and organic product development, we have established ourselves as one of the primary e-commerce and Internet enabling operators in our region. In doing so, we have developed a strong base of local access customers and a high quality revenue platform for continued growth in the future," commented Gary Mesch, VersaTel's Chief Executive Officer. In total, on-net revenues for VersaTel were 44.4 percent of total revenues for FY1999 and 52.1 percent of 4Q99 revenues, compared to 2.3 percent in FY1998 and 53.8 percent for 3Q99. Directly connected fiber services customers amounted to 99 for the quarter ended December 31, 1999 and generated approximately NLG 1.3 million in revenue, up from NLG 0.6 million for the quarter ended September 30, 1999. VersaTel's gross margin in the fourth quarter of 1999 was 19.5 percent. For the year ended December 31, 1999, gross margin was 22.0 percent, an increase of 240 basis points compared with FY1998. As anticipated, VersaTel experienced erosion in its fourth quarter gross margin primarily due to increases in fixed costs fixed costs, n.pl the costs that do not change to meet fluctuations in enrollment or in use of services (e.g., salaries, rent, business license fees, and depreciation). and short-term leased connections. In The Netherlands and Belgium, VersaTel has continued to increase interconnect (1) To attach one device to another. (2) A physical port (plug, socket) or wireless port (transmitter, receiver) used to attach one device to another. capacity with KPN KPN Koninklijke PTT Nederland (Royal Dutch Telecom) KPN Konfederacja Polski Niepodleglej (Polish conservative party) and Belgacom to support current and future growth. Also, VersaTel has connected customers with short-term leased lines A private communications channel leased from a common carrier. Most digital lines require four wires (two pairs) for full-duplex transmission. (communications, networking) leased line ahead of it is construction of local access extensions and the Overlay Network A logical network that runs on top of another network. For example, peer-to-peer networks are overlay networks on the Internet. They use their own addressing system for determining how files are distributed and accessed, which provides a layer on top of the Internet's IP addressing. . In addition, VersaTel maintains short-term leases for international connectivity ahead of the delivery of fiber from trades and purchases that it entered into previously. Gross margins on fixed-to-mobile calls have fallen as tariffs This is a list of tariffs and trade legislation:
regulated - controlled or governed according to rule or principle or law; "well regulated industries"; "houses with regulated temperature" 2. wholesale interconnect rates stable. Dutch mobile operators have also instituted call-blocking to prevented lower cost international refiling alternatives for fixed-to-mobile calls. VersaTel is currently negotiating competitive interconnect agreements Interconnect agreements on the Internet are of typically two forms: Peering and IP Transit. with the mobile operators. "As I have mentioned on previous occasions, VersaTel is very focused on customer satisfaction and service quality, which has resulted in an increase in our short-term fixed costs and therefore in short-term margin erosion. Ahead of VersaTel's completion of the overlay network and additional local access extensions, we have placed a priority on providing high bandwidth connectivity to our customers, including short-term leased lines. In addition, for fixed-to-mobile traffic, we have decided to avoid quality issues presented by international refiling and instead purchase expensive wholesale interconnect capacity from the Dutch mobile operators while we resolve the issue with them and the regulator regulator, n the mechanical part of a gas delivery system that controls gas pressure that allows a manageable flow of drug vapor to escape. regulator see reducing valve. . We believe that short-term costs related to quality and connectivity are a small price to pay for long-term customer loyalty and developing our business in the high growth, high bandwidth data and Internet markets," Raj raj also Raj n. Dominion or rule, especially the British rule over India (1757-1947). [Hindi r Raithatha, Chief Financial Officer for VersaTel, concluded. Sales, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) for the fourth quarter of 1999 were NLG 63.5 million or 124.8 percent of revenues, compared with NLG 43.7 million or 112.0 percent of revenues for the third quarter of 1999. The increase in SG&A is primarily attributable to Zon's extensive media campaign, as well as multi-media advertising campaign by VersaTel during the quarter. Excluding Zon's SG&A expense of NLG 14.1 million, SG&A expenses totaled NLG 49.3 million, or 97.0 percent of revenues, a relative improvement over previous quarters' expenses. For the year ended December 31, 1999, SG&A expenses totaled NLG 182.5 million, or 141.5 percent of revenues. Excluding Zon, SG&A expenses were NLG 163.0 million, or 126.4 percent of revenues. VersaTel's fourth quarter 1999 loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become ) was NLG 53.5 million compared with NLG 33.7 million for the previous quarter. Excluding Zon's SG&A expense, the EBITDA loss would have been NLG 39.4 million. For the year ended December 31, 1999, the EBITDA loss was NLG 154.1 million (NLG 134.6 million excluding Zon's SG&A) compared with NLG 53.5 million for FY1998. The net loss for the fourth quarter of 1999 was NLG 168.4 million. Excluding Zon's net loss, and a non-cash charge Non-Cash Charge A charge off, made by a company against earnings, that does not require an initial outlay of cash. Notes: Non-cash charges are typically against the depreciation, amortization, and depletion accounts on a company's balance sheet. of NLG 52.2 million for the 5.8 percent fluctuation Fluctuation A price or interest rate change. in the Guilder/Dollar exchange rate that resulted in a book restatement Restatement A revision in a company's earlier financial statements. Notes: The need for restating financial figures can result from fraud, misrepresentation, or a simple clerical error. of the Dollar debt on VersaTel's balance sheet, the net loss for VersaTel would have been NLG 101.0 million. For the year ended December 31, 1999, the net loss was NLG 436.2 million. Excluding Zon's net loss and non-cash foreign exchange rate losses, the net loss for FY1999 would have been NLG 314.5 million. VersaTel's capital expenditures for the fourth quarter of 1999 and FY1999 were NLG 229.2 million and NLG 471.4 million, respectively, including NLG 88.4 million for the acquired IRU Iru (ī`r  ), in the Bible, Caleb's eldest son. as part of the VEW
Telnet transaction. The Company had NLG 2.3 billion in cash and cash
equivalents at December 31, 1999.During the current month, VersaTel will submit an annual report on Form 20-F to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This will be the last set of financial reports that will use Netherlands Guilders as the reporting currency Reporting Currency The currency used in published reports and financial documents. Notes: All annual and quarterly reports state the currency in which their results are listed. , all future reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission will use Euros. VersaTel Network On February 14, 2000, VersaTel announced the completion of the first phase of its fiber optic Overlay Network. Consisting of the Randstad, Limburg, Golden Triangle Golden Triangle can refer to:
The STM-64 Limburg ring spans approximately 650 km and connects the Dutch cities of Breda, Eindhoven, Venlo, Heerlen, Den Bosch and Maastricht with the Belgian cities of Luik, Hasselt, Leuven, Brussels and Antwerp. The STM-16 Golden Triangle ring spans approximately 250 km and connects the three most important cities in the Flanders region of Belgium: Antwerp, Brussels and Gent. The STM-16 Noord Holland ring spans approximately 100 km and connects the Dutch cities of Alkmaar, Haarlem and Amsterdam. The STM-64 Randstad and Limburg rings are capable of carrying traffic at 10 Gbit/s, the fastest technology currently available, and represent an important solution to the local access bandwidth scarcity Scarcity The basic economic problem which arises from people having unlimited wants while there are and always will be limited resources. Because of scarcity, various economic decisions must be made to allocate resources efficiently. in the Benelux. The STM-16 Noord Holland and Golden Triangle rings carry traffic at a line speed of 2.5 Gbit/s and will be upgraded to STM-64 speed in the future. In contrast to most long-haul overlay (1) A preprinted, precut form placed over a screen, key or tablet for identification purposes. See keyboard template. (2) A program segment called into memory when required. rings, VersaTel's Overlay Network has been designed to allow direct local access customer links, transmission links to MDF (1) (Main Distribution Frame) A wiring rack that connects outside lines with internal lines. It is used to connect public or private lines coming into the building to internal networks. sites for DSL DSL in full Digital Subscriber Line Broadband digital communications connection that operates over standard copper telephone wires. It requires a DSL modem, which splits transmissions into two frequency bands: the lower frequencies for voice (ordinary deployment, and links to local access business park and city ring extensions to optimize optimize - optimisation broadband broadband Term describing the radiation from a source that produces a broad, continuous spectrum of frequencies (contrasted with a laser, which produces a single frequency or very narrow range of frequencies). local access connectivity. In addition to the milestone completion of the first phase of the Overlay Network, VersaTel also connected more than 80 buildings to its network during the year ended December 31, 1999, up from 30 at the end of the third quarter and no buildings connected at the end of 1998. Including the acquisition of the VEW Telnet network in Germany, VersaTel had more than 175 buildings connected to its network at the end of 1999. Business Development In addition to developing a regional fiber network that will help solve the critical last mile problem for businesses in the Benelux and the Northwest Rhine region of Germany, VersaTel has strategically used acquisitions and internal business development projects to evolve its operations from a facilities-based reseller An organization that sells hardware and software to the general public. Resellers purchase products from software publishers and hardware manufacturers. of voice traffic to a broadband local access network operator with a full portfolio of broadband data and Internet products. Bundling of Internet Operations On March 3, 2000, VersaTel announced that it had bundled its Internet activities into a separate business unit within the company and appointed a new senior management team from UUNet to operate these activities. VersaTel's Internet subsidiaries, Zon, a widely recognized and one of the largest free ISPs See free Internet service. in The Netherlands with over 400,000 subscribers; VuurWerk, a leading web hosting Making a Web site available on the Internet. Many ISPs host a few personal Web pages for an individual at no additional cost above the monthly service fee, but the address is subordinate to the ISP; for example, www.friendlyisp.com/pat_smith. company in The Netherlands for the SME market See SMB. segment with over 12,000 web hosting customers and 35,000 domain name registrations; CS Net, a leading business-to-business e-commerce provider; and ITinera, a leading regional web hosting company and ISP (1) See in-system programmable. (2) (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet. Connection to the user is provided via dial-up, ISDN, cable, DSL and T1/T3 lines. in Belgium, will be grouped into the new Internet See Web 2.0 and Internet2. division that will serve as a growth platform for VersaTel's existing Internet operations and future Internet opportunities. In bundling these different operations, VersaTel seeks to maximize content, e-commerce and application development synergies in order to capitalize To regard the cost of an improvement or other purchase as a capital asset for purposes of determining Income Tax liability. To calculate the net worth upon which an investment is based. To issue company stocks or bonds to finance an investment. swiftly and efficiently on the European Internet opportunity. To support the continued growth of the Internet division and build new initiatives, VersaTel recruited key senior executives with over 20 years of combined Internet experience, most recently at MCI (1) (Media Control Interface) A high-level programming interface from Microsoft and IBM for controlling multimedia devices. It provides commands and functions to open, play and close the device. (2) (Microwave Communications Inc. Worldcom's Internet subsidiary, UUNet. This management team consists of Chris Silk, formerly the European Divisional Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Products for the business development group based in Amsterdam; Mike Hannen, formerly the Chief Financial Officer of UUNet Canada; Owen Geddes previously the Director of Products for the business development group of UUNet in the U.K; and Jeremy Penston, formerly a Director of Business Development for UUNet in Europe. 24hours On March 6, 2000, VersaTel announced the launch of the first free Dutch language Dutch language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Also called Netherlandish, it is spoken by about 15 million inhabitants of the Netherlands, where it is the national business Internet service provider Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. (ISP) and Application Service Provider (ASP asp, popular name for several species of viper, one of which, the European asp (Vipera aspis), is native to S Europe. It is also a name for the Egyptian cobra (Naja haja). ), under the brand-name 24hours. 24hours, launched in co-operation with Elsevier Bedrijfsinformation, a division of Reed Elsevier, is targeted at the rapidly growing small and medium sized business (SME (1) (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) See SMB. (2) (Subject Matter Expert) An individual who is well-versed in the policies and procedures of a particular department or division. ) market in The Netherlands. Through the partnership, Elsevier Bedrijfsinformatie will provide 24hour's portal-site with unique, high quality business content from their business publication FEM/De Week, one of the leading Dutch weekly financial magazines. The content of the portal site Noun 1. portal site - a site that the owner positions as an entrance to other sites on the internet; "a portal typically has search engines and free email and chat rooms etc. will be done by FEM/De Week, Elsevier's popular Dutch weekly financial and economic magazine. Through Elsevier, 24hours gains a dedicated team of experienced journalists that will create quality, reliable and accessible information targeted towards SME market demands in The Netherlands. In cooperation with this team, 24hours will update the unique information on the portal-site several times per day. In addition, to ISP services, 24hours shortly will begin offering a suite of ASP services to the Dutch business market. VersaPoint On March 8, 2000, VersaTel and NorthPoint Communications NorthPoint Communications (Former NASDAQ: NPNT) was a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier), focused on data transmission rather than voice. Its business plan involved leasing copper telephone lines from local phone companies, then selling them at wholesale prices to announced plans to create a new company to deliver digital subscriber line See DSL. (communications, protocol) Digital Subscriber Line - (DSL, or Digital Subscriber Loop, xDSL - see below) A family of digital telecommunications protocols designed to allow high speed data communication over the existing copper telephone lines between end-users and (DSL) services across the EU market. The new company, VersaPoint, will combine NorthPoint's DSL network deployment and operations expertise with VersaTel's established broadband local access network, DSL operations in the Benelux and Germany, and local market/regulatory experience in Europe. VersaPoint intends to be the first Pan-European wholesale DSL service provider and will launch full commercial service this summer. Through VersaPoint, European customers will be able to purchase wholesale services with connection speeds that are up to 25 times faster than traditional dial-up services An information service on demand. The term was popular when analog modems were the only way to connect to a remote system. See dial-up. . VersaPoint will deploy a dense build strategy with a near term plan of 50 percent line coverage, comprising more than 2,000 central office co-locations in the German and Dutch markets. VersaPoint will leverage VersaTel's local access network to quickly and efficiently access central offices in The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium (as the local loop is unbundled). As other markets open in the European Union European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community , VersaPoint will deploy the same dense line coverage operations with the goal of being the largest Pan-European DSL network operator with line coverage of approximately 80 percent in core European service areas. VersaPoint will leverage VersaTel's Benelux and German networks, which will consist of 3,600 route km of fiber optic cable Noun 1. fiber optic cable - a cable made of optical fibers that can transmit large amounts of information at the speed of light fibre optic cable transmission line, cable, line - a conductor for transmitting electrical or optical signals or electric power , as well as 36 operational central offices in the German market (representing 12 percent of VEW Telnet's addressable market) and 15 central offices in The Netherlands (representing 10 percent of the Dutch market). The initial VersaPoint senior management team will be staffed by VersaTel and NorthPoint, including Michael Malaga, NorthPoint's Chairman, founder and former CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , as the CEO of VersaPoint. NorthPoint and VersaTel will equally fund VersaPoint's start-up costs and initial capital requirements Capital requirements Financing required for the operation of a business, composed of long-term and working capital plus fixed assets. through a EUR EUR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Euro. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 100 million cash investment and the contribution of certain assets. Each company will gain equal economic and voting interests Voting interest in business and accounting is a percentage of voting stock owned. This notion is different from economic interest that refers to a percentage of all the equity issued, including preferred stock, warrants, and so on. in the newly formed company. Following the initial investments, VersaPoint intends to seek financing through the public capital markets. VEW Telnet Acquisition On December 20, 1999, VersaTel announced that it acquired 100 percent of the outstanding stock of VEW Telnet, a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of VEW ENERGIE AG, and a long term right to use the fiber optic network of VEW Telnet, which is owned by VEW ENERGIE, for approximately EUR 120 million. The acquisition represented a key geographic expansion for VersaTel into the Northwest Rhine region of Germany that is contiguous Adjacent or touching. Contrast with fragmentation. See contiguous file. to VersaTel's existing broadband network in the Benelux. The acquisition of VEW Telnet was a logical extension of VersaTel's strategic focus due to its market's high business concentrations and favorable fa·vor·a·ble adj. 1. Advantageous; helpful: favorable winds. 2. Encouraging; propitious: a favorable diagnosis. 3. demographics The attributes of people in a particular geographic area. Used for marketing purposes, population, ethnic origins, religion, spoken language, income and age range are examples of demographic data. . This region of Germany, Westphalia-Lippe, represents approximately 10 percent of the population of Germany, and over 240,000 addressable business customers. Through the acquisition, VersaTel gained access to approximately 1,400 km of fiber optic network, primarily consisting of 18 fibers. The backbone network A backbone network provides a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks.[1] A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same building, in different buildings in a campus environment, or over wide areas. consists of an STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscope) A microscope that can image down to the atomic level. An STM uses a piezoelectric tube with a tiny sharp tip at the end that is moved within nanometers of the object being sampled. 16 ring with over 160 SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) The European counterpart to SONET. See SONET. SDH - Synchronous Digital Hierarchy nodes/PoP locations and 7 points of interconnection in·ter·con·nect v. in·ter·con·nect·ed, in·ter·con·nect·ing, in·ter·con·nects v.intr. To be connected with each other: The two buildings interconnect. v.tr. with Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (ISIN: DE0005557508, FWB: DTE, NYSE: DT, LSE: DEU, TYO: 9496 ) (abbreviated DTAG) is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Germany and in the EU. . To accelerate local access fiber connections, VersaTel has secured the right to jointly build with VEW ENERGIE by utilizing its power network rights-of-way, giving VersaTel the ability to build additional fiber network and customer connections. New Developments KomTel Acquisition Today, VersaTel announced that it reached agreement, subject to customary conditions, to purchase a majority of KomTel, a leading alternative fiber network operator in the Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg Hamburg, city, Germany Hamburg (häm`b  rkh), officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg), city (1994 pop. regions of Northern Germany Northern Germany is the geographic area in the north of Germany. The native German concept of northern Germany is called Norddeutschland. Northern German StatesNorddeutschland is the geographic area of five German states:
The acquisition of KomTel represents VersaTel's continued focus on expanding its network and services into the western part of Germany. In conjunction with VEW Telnet, KomTel will further develop VersaTel's German operations in a region of dense business concentration. With more than 3,000 business customers, 38,000 Internet customers and 160 employees, KomTel is currently a leading alternative fiber network operator in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. The Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg regions of Germany have a population of 4.5 million with more than 150,000 addressable businesses. For the year ended December 31, 1999, KomTel had revenues of NLG 67.6 million. As part of the acquisition, VersaTel will gain access to 1,078 km of fiber optic network with an average of 32 fibers. In addition, KomTel is operational in 27 main distribution frame (MDF) or central office (CO) locations and is ready to connect an additional 39 MDF sites to its network. KomTel intends to be operational in all 66 MDF sites by the second half of this year. VersaTel Telecom International N.V. (Nasdaq & AEX: VRSA) is a rapidly growing, facilities-based, competitive local access broadband network operator primarily focused on the Benelux, which consists of The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and Northwest Germany and is based in Amsterdam. Founded in October 1995, the Company holds full telecommunications Communicating information, including data, text, pictures, voice and video over long distance. See communications. licenses in Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and has over 30,000 business customers and 900 employees. VersaTel is currently building a broadband network that will use the latest network technologies to provide business customers in the Benelux and the Northwest Rhine region of Germany with high bandwidth voice, data and Internet services. VersaTel is a publicly traded company publicly traded company A company whose shares of common stock are held by the public and are available for purchase by investors. The shares of publicly traded firms are bought and sold on the organized exchanges or in the over-the-counter market. on the Amsterdam Stock Exchanges
The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is the former name for the stock exchange based in Amsterdam. and Nasdaq National Market under the symbol "VRSA". News and information are available at http://www.versatel.com. (Certain statements in this Press Release are "forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. " within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. Act of 1995. Such statements are based on the current expectations of the management of VersaTel Telecom International NV only, and are subject to a number of risk factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to changes in technology and market requirements, decline in demand for the company's products or services, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and services, loss of market share, pressure on pricing resulting from competition, inability to maintain certain marketing and distribution arrangements, and construction delays, which could cause the actual results or performance of the company to differ materially from those described therein. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the company, refer to the Company's reports to be filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.) Note to Editors: The VersaTel logo is a registered trademark of VersaTel Telecom International NV in The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
VERSATEL TELECOM INTERNATIONAL N.V.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(in thousands)
ASSETS
December 31, 1998 December 31, 1999
--------------------- -------------------
Current assets:
Cash and Cash equivalents NLG 583,570 NLG 2,315,724 $1,057,408
Accounts receivables, net 7,902 29,479 13,461
Inventories 1,083 4,470 2,041
Other current assets 12,909 94,353 43,084
-------------- -------------- ---------
Total current assets 605,464 2,444,026 1,115,994
Fixed Assets
Property, plant
and equipment, net 38,608 512,790 234,151
Construction in progress 46,019 180,271 82,316
-------------- ------------- ----------
Total fixed assets 84,627 693,061 316,467
Capitalised finance cost 28,750 62,265 28,432
Other Non-current assets - 31,611 14,433
Goodwill 4,556 434,072 198,206
-------------- ------------- ----------
Total assets NLG 723,397 NLG 3,665,035 $ 1,673,532
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
December 31, 1998 December 31, 1999
------------------------------------------------
Accounts payable and
accrued liabilities NLG 68,745 NLG 351,008 $ 160,277
Unearned revenue - 5,198 2,374
Long-term debt:
Convertible notes - 662,873 302,682
Long-term liability 707 71,146 32,487
Senior Notes 688,018 1,456,053 664,864
-------------- --------------- -----------
Total long-term debt 688,725 2,190,072 1,000,033
-------------- --------------- -----------
Total liabilities 757,470 2,546,278 1,162,684
Minority Interests - - -
Stockholders equity:
Common stock,
dfl 0.05 par value 1,949 3,961 1,809
Additional paid-in capital 51,112 1,638,720 748,274
Warrants 5,212 4,602 2,101
Accumulated deficit (92,346) (528,526) (241,336)
-------------- --------------- -----------
Total stockholders' equity (34,073) 1,118,757 510,848
-------------- --------------- -----------
Total liabilities and
stockholders' equity NLG 723,397 NLG 3,665,035 $ 1,673,532
Notes:
1 All financial data presented is in accordance with US GAAP
2 The financial data for the period ending December 31, 1998 and
1999 are audited
3 Cash and Cash equivalents include restricted cash
4 The December 31, 1999 Noon Buying Rate for the Dutch guilder was
NLG 2.19 per US$ 1.00
5 The Company effected a 2 for 1 stock split per 13 April 1999; the
share data above include this stock split
VERSATEL TELECOM INTERNATIONAL N.V.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
(in thousands)
Three Months Ended
-------------- --------------------------
Dec 31, 1998 Dec. 31 , 1999
-------------- --------------------------
Revenues:
Voice services NLG 12,784 NLG 27,139 $ 12,392
Internet services 897 9,611 4,389
Data services 14,116 6,446 31,093
-------------- -------------- ----------
Total revenues 13,681 50,866 23,227
Cost of revenue 10,701 40,925 18,687
Gross margin 2,980 9,941 4,540
Operating expenses:
Selling general
and administrative 17,731 63,458 28,976
Depreciation/amortisation 1,559 28,079 12,821
-------------- -------------- ----------
Total operating expenses 19,290 91,537 41,797
Loss from operations (16,310) (81,596) (37,257)
Interest income 3,713 11,025 5,034
Interest expense 14,561 49,874 22,774
FX (gain)/loss (399) 52,231 23,850
-------------- -------------- ----------
Loss before taxes (26,759) (172,676) (78,847)
Provision for income taxes 7 (3,855) (1,760)
-------------- -------------- ----------
Loss before
minority interest (26,766) (168,821) (77,087)
-------------- -------------- ----------
Minority interest - 372 170
Net loss NLG (26,766) NLG (168,449) $ (76,917)
============== ============== ==========
Other data:
EBITDA NLG (14,751) NLG (53,517) $ (24,436)
Net loss per common share:
Basic and diluted NLG (0.69) NLG (2.50) $ (1.14)
============== ============== ==========
Weighted average
shares outstanding:
Basic 38,934 67,538 67,538
============== ============== ==========
Diluted 47,564 76,962 76,962
============== ============== ==========
Twelve Months Ended
-------------- -----------------------------
Dec. 31, 1998 Dec. 31, 1999
--------------- -----------------------------
Revenues:
Voice services NLG 38,664 NLG 82,183 $ 37,525
Internet services 897 15,724 7,180
Data services - 31,093 14,199
-
-------------- --------------- ------------
Total revenues 39,561 129,000 58,904
Cost of revenue 31,821 100,615 45,943
Gross margin 7,740 28,385 12,961
Operating expenses:
Selling general
and administrative 47,733 182,483 83,326
Depreciation/amortisation 6,473 58,206 26,578
-------------- --------------- -----------
Total operating expenses 54,206 240,689 109,904
Loss from operations (46,466) (212,304) (96,943)
Interest income 11,857 28,342 12,942
Interest expenses 37,667 157,285 71,820
FX (gain)/loss (5,146) 96,267 43,957
-------------- --------------- ------------
Loss before taxes (67,130) (437,514) (199,778)
Provision for income taxes 7 (962) (439)
-------------- --------------- ------------
Loss before
minority interest (67,137) (436,552) (199,339)
-------------- --------------- ------------
Minority interest - 372 170
Net loss NLG (67,137) NLG (436,180) $ (199,169)
============== =============== ============
Other data:
EBITDA NLG (39,993) NLG (154,098) $ (70,365)
Net loss per common share:
Basic and diluted NLG (2.06) NLG (8.57) $ (3.91)
============== =============== ============
Weighted average
shares outstanding:
Basic 32,622 50,929 50,929
============== =============== ============
Diluted 37,932 60,957 60,957
============== =============== ============
Notes:
1 All financial data presented is in accordance with US GAAP
2 The financial data for the 3 months periods ended December 31,
1998 and 1999 are unaudited
3 The financial data for the 12 months periods ended December 31,
1998 and 1999 are audited
4 The December 31, 1999 Noon Buying Rate for the Dutch guilder was
NLG 2.19 per US$ 1.00
5 EBITDA consists of earning/(loss) before interest income/expense,
income taxes, depreciation, amortization, other income/expense and
foreign exchange gain/loss
6 The company effected a 2 for 1 stock split per 13 April 1999; the
share data above include this stock split
VERSATEL TELECOM INTERNATIONAL N.V.
PERFORMANCE STATISTICS
December 31, 1998 December 31, 1999
------------------------- -----------------------
Headcount Sales:
Netherlands 31 80
Belgium 14 30
Germany - 16
Network Operational:
switches 2 3
PoP's 2 19
Benelux Network Planned
or Under Construction:
switches - 1
PoP's 5 10
route kilometers
of duct completed 372 1,499
route kilometers
of duct under
construction 566 224
total route
kilometers planned 938 1,723
route kilometers
of fiber blown - 1,176
International Network:
Amsterdam-London - live
Amsterdam-Frankfurt - live
Amsterdam-USA - live
Benelux Broadband Local
Access Network Footprint:
city centers passed - 28
business parks passed - 30
buildings connected - 81
VEW Telnet Network Statistics
route kilometers
of operational fiber N/A 1,364
buildings connected N/A 97
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