Telefonica's domestic revenues rose on an annual basis last month for the first time since 2009, according to the company’s chairman Cesar Alierta. Speaking at the company’s general shareholders’ meeting, Alierta welcomed the upturn in the domestic market following a long-term recession in Spain that hit Telefonica badly, reducing its revenues by 40 percent since 2009. He described 2014 as “a year that marks the culmination of a period of intense transformation and in which we have taken great strides towards becoming a leading digital telco.” The announcement of a slight year-on-year rise in monthly revenues comes just after Telefonica increased the monthly tariffs of its popular Movistar Fusion convergent packages by around EUR 5 per month in exchange for improved services.
In the first quarter, Telefonica’s Spanish unit reported sales of EUR 2.88 billion, down 3.8 percent on last year’s result of EUR 2.99 billion but an improvement on falls of 4.9 percent, 6.6 percent and 9.1 percent in previous quarters. Alierta announced that the company would pay shareholders an annual dividend of EUR 0.75 per share, with EUR 0.35 payable as a scrip dividend in the fourth quarter and a second tranche of EUR 0.40 to be paid in cash in the second quarter of 2016.
Telefonica’s chairman also reiterated his call for regulators to create a level playing to help telecoms operators create new digital infrastructure. “Regulation also needs to adapt to this requirement, by creating a more favourable environment for investment, by means of a simplification of access regulation which will provide greater commercial flexibility and will promote cooperation and risk-sharing,” he said.
