Expatica news

Spanish telephone giant’s profits rise 35pc

16 May 2005

MADRID — Spanish telephone giant Telefonica has raised net profit in the first quarter by 35.9 percent to EUR 912.19 million.

This was towards the top end of a range forecast by analysts who had expected a figure of between EUR 651-1.02 billion.

Sales rose by 16.7 percent from the equivalent figure last year to EUR 8.27 billion.

The increase was led by the mobile telephone business and by the contribution from assets in Latin America acquired last year from US group BellSouth.

Telefonica said that all branches of its business had performed firmly, noting in particular the contributions from mobile telephone activities, and fixed-line business in Spain owing to a surge of activity in high-capacity lines.

Subsidiaries in Latin America had also performed well.

On 31 March, Telefonica had 131 million subscribers, an increase of 28.6 percent from the equivalent figure last year.

Of the total, 3.5 million subscribers were plugged into high-capacity lines, an increase of 56.5 percent in 12 months.

The mobile telephone business had 81.4 million subscribers, an increase of 50.4 percent over 12 months. Of these, 59.1 million were in Latin America.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news