At the end of the second quarter, Spanish telecom giant Telefónica cancelled payment of all remaining dividends and share buybacks for this year, citing the current instability of the economy as prompting the move; now for the third quarter, the telecom operator announced that its net profits were up by 26.4% at U.S.$4.41 billion (€3.455 billion).
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In its financial results statement, Telefónica said that thanks to an active financing policy (€13.0 million so far this year), it has already covered its debt maturities until after 2014, with a net liquidity position of €18.0 million.
The company also noted the consolidated improvement of its quarterly returns in all regions, and between January and September, it has recorded year-on-year growth rates of +10.7% and +19.6% in OIBDA and operating income, respectively.
By the end of September, Telefónica had 314 million accesses in its customers base, which is an increase of 5% year-on-year, driven by the increase in mobile, fixed and mobile broadband, and pay-TV accesses. There was a noteworthy 8% year-on-year increase in accesses at Telefónica Latinoamérica (67% of the total).
Others highlights:
- In the first nine months of the year, OIBDA reached €15.782 million. The operating result reached €8.009 million.
- 78% of Telefónica’s clients are mobile, amounting to 246 million (+6%), supported by the sustained growth in contract users (+7% overall; in Latin America, +12%).
- Mobile broadband access has grown at solid rates of +40% year-on-year and already accounts for 47.7 million accesses.
- Mobile accesses stood at 246 million at the end of the third quarter (+6% year-on-year).
- Mobile broadband accesses were 47.7 million at the end of September 2012 and accounted for 19% of mobile accesses.
- In this period, Telefónica launched a convergent offer in Spain, the new IPTV platform in Brazil and the development of new M2M services. Also, its joint-venture in the U.K. for mobile payment and advertising was approved by European Union authorities; it signed an agreement with Aurasma, the world’s leading augmented-reality platform, and the company launched Amérigo, a €300 million network of private equity funds.
- Telefónica pointed out significant savings in commercial expenses, such as the gradual reduction of subsidies in the U.K., the focus on quality as key to reducing churn, and network-sharing agreements reached with other operators in the U.K. and Mexico.
Currency exchange rate at the time of this piece was 1 USD = 0.783325 EUR.
