Virgin Media Business (VMB) continues to be a growth engine for parent Virgin Media. The Business division saw revenue increase by 9.5% in Q3 to £169m, and 8.8% in the nine months to the end of September to £505m. In comparison, Group turnover increased by 3.1% in the nine month period to just over £3bn. In other words, VMB accounted for 44% of group revenue growth over the first three quarters of 2012. For the record, operating profit at Virgin Media increased by 31% to £490m over the nine months.
Our interest in VMB stems from its involvement in the UK’s Public Services Network (PSN) market - the government’s standards-based initiative designed to create a ‘network of networks’ so that information can be shared securely between different public sector organisations (see The Public Services Network: foundation for change in public sector IT? for background if you’re a PublicSectorViews subscriber). There’s not much detail in Virgin Media’s Q3 results, but it’s clear that the UK public sector remains a key market for VMB and one where it intends to take market share with disruptive pricing and innovative offers (see also Virgin Media means Business in UK public sector). Indeed, it recently celebrated securing Yorkshire and Humberside Partnership Management Board as a customer.