Hutchison Whampoa published some operating details of its 3 Group operations in Europe, revealing that its EBITDA had decreased in the third quarter due to “increased acquisition and retention costs due to accelerating postpaid customer base growth.”

For the period to 30 September 2011, EBITDA at the business fell by 9 percent to US$0.2 billion. Revenue increased by 10 percent to US$1.8 billion: growth was 9 percent when excluding increased revenue from handset sales during the period.

In a presentation, Hutchison said that contract subscribers account for around 85 percent of 3 Group’s revenue. The European businesses ended the period with 10.45 million registered contract subscribers, growth of 9 percent year-on-year. It did not provide figures for its prepaid customer base.

On a group level, Hutchison said that revenue from all of its telecommunications activities increased by 11 percent, without providing a figure to support this. EBITDA for this unit increased by 42 percent.