MUNICH (dpa-AFX) – Due to good business development, the telecommunications provider Telefonica Deutschland is slightly raising its previous forecast for the current year. Turnover and operating result should now be a little above the previous targets. Meanwhile, the group performed slightly better than analysts had predicted in the third quarter. With the 5G expansion, CEO Markus Haas now assumes that the 2025 target of full coverage will be reached earlier than planned. Telefonica Deutschland shares rose slightly shortly after trading began.
In the current year, growth in sales and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization adjusted for special effects should be in the lower middle single-digit percentage range compared to the previous year, as the MDAX-listed company announced on Thursday in Munich. The Executive Board had previously expected a slightly lower increase in both indicators. In 2021, Telefonica Deutschland had earned almost 7.8 billion euros and achieved an adjusted operating profit of 2.4 billion euros.
In the third quarter, group sales rose by six percent to almost 2.1 billion euros. The revenue from mobile communications services, which has received much attention from analysts, climbed by 3.7 percent. “We don’t see any reluctance to buy from customers,” Haas said in a conference call with journalists. Consumers would rather forgo going to a restaurant than cut corners when it comes to mobile phone services. Telefonica Deutschland makes almost 80 percent of its mobile revenues with services. The rest comes from the sale of smartphones and tablets, which increased significantly more in percentage terms between July and September.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization adjusted for special effects increased by almost five percent to around 642 million euros. The bottom line is that profits fell from 227 million euros in the previous year to 39 million euros now. However, this was due to a one-off effect: In the same quarter of the previous year, Telefonica Germany had benefited from a payment for the sale of its cell phone sites. Overall, the company performed slightly better than analysts had anticipated in the third quarter.
At the beginning of the week, Telefonica Deutschland announced a huge leap in the 5G network expansion: According to the provider, the provider currently supplies three quarters of the population in Germany with the fast network. Telefonica Deutschland had already announced its goal of being able to cover half of all people in this country with 5G by the end of the year in July.
By 2025, everyone in Germany should be able to receive the 5G network from Telefonica Deutschland. Haas explained that he now wants to reach the goal earlier. The manager did not name an intermediate goal until then. After deducting terminations, Telefonica Deutschland recorded an increase of 304,000 new contract customers in the third quarter./ngu/niw/stk
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