Mobiles, internet key to Telefonica profits

13 May 2004

MADRID- Spanish telephone giant Telefonica reported first-quarter 2004 net profits Thursday of EUR 558.2 million (USD 658 million) –  a 2.7 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Telefonica Latinoamericana was the second-largest contributor to Telefonica’s consolidated earnings, with first quarter revenue jumping 8.8 percent to EUR 1.63 billion(USD 1.92 billion) compared with the same period last year.

Telefonica posted revenues of EUR 6.95 billion (USD 8.21 billion) in the first quarter of this year –  7.7 percent up on the first  three months of 2003.

Higher revenues helped boost Telefonica’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and other earnings to EUR 3.11 billion (USD 3.7 billion) –  or 10.4 percent higher than in the first quarter of last year.

Telefonica’s customer base rose to 101.7 million, which represents year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter increases of 15.8 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively, mostly as a result of increased mobile and broadband Internet services.

Telefonica Moviles’s customer base rose 30.1 percent to 54.4 million subscribers, while broadband Internet customers rose 77.6 percent to 3 million.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news