Iliad, growing accounts and digital route: Italia pushes on

Iliad runs, grinds customers and now also accelerates on the profit front. The French telecommunications group headed by Xavier Niel closed 2025 with a profit of EUR 752 million, more than double the previous year's figure, while revenues exceeded EUR 10.3 billion. And even from Italia come clearer signs of the group's trajectory: double-digit growth in turnover, a cash flow that is beginning to weigh and a marked improvement in margins, with losses more than halved from EUR 327 million to EUR 147 million.

The Iliad group, the market-breaker, the operator capable of disrupting tariffs and nibbling away at competitors' shares, is still an operator that continues to take customers, but in the meantime improves profitability and lowers debt. In fact, the leverage ratio drops from 2.7 to 2.3 times, while the ebitdaAl of the group led by Thomas Reynaud exceeds 4 billion.

In Italia, revenues rose by 9% to approximately 1.25 billion, after-lease ebitda grew by 26.8% to 390 million, and operating free cash flow reached 120 million, more than tripling. Above all, there is the commercial dynamic: over 13 million users between mobile and fixed, 918 thousand new customers in mobile and 146 thousand in fibre. Numbers that allow Iliad to claim, once again, the leadership in net recruitment: for 31 quarters in mobile and in first place also in ultra-wideband. "The year 2025 - says Benedetto Levi, CEO of iliad Italia - confirms itself as a year of important results for iliad in Italia. We have exceeded 13 million users between mobile and fixed and more than tripled our operating free cash flow. In a particularly competitive market context, we continue to grow thanks to a clear strategy: innovation, efficiency and a constant focus on service quality'.

However, Iliad is also seeking to become something else: a European digital infrastructure platform, with ambitions that go far beyond telephony. The strategic transformation begun in 2023, explains the group in its note accompanying the 2025 figures, continues in fact with investments in cloud, data centres and computing for artificial intelligence, while the partnership with Infravia through OpCore takes shape and Scaleway also accelerates in Italia after the launch of its Cloud AI activities.

"Our solid economic performance and low level of debt," Reynaud emphasises, "now allow us to continue to grow in Europe and accelerate in our new sectors: cloud, data centres and computing power dedicated to artificial intelligence. In a geopolitical context characterised by intense technological competition, these investments are essential to strengthen Europe's digital sovereignty and build an independent European champion in the telecommunications and digital sectors'.