Virgin Media expects business to improve in current quarter

Virgin Media Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Neil Berkett expects business at the U.K.’s second- largest pay-television company to further improve this quarter as clients increase spending from record levels.

“We forecast average revenue per user to further rise in the current quarter,” Berkett said in a phone interview today. In the third quarter, average revenue per user rose to a record 44.24 pounds from 42 pounds a year earlier, the Hook, England- based company said in a statement. Berkett also expects sales and profit to advance in the final three months of the year from the third quarter. He declined to give specifics. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and other charges rose 6.7 percent to 348 million pounds ($578 million) in the third quarter while sales increased 1.3 percent to 953 million pounds.