Telecom Italia reported a 4.5 percent year-on-year fall in third-quarter revenues to EUR 5.4 billion, hurt by a slowdown at its Brazil unit and a recession-hit domestic market. However, the operator welcomed the results as a reversal of its recent revenue decline compared to falls of 11.9 percent and 11.2 percent in the previous two quarters. “There are concrete signs of recovery in the domestic market,” said Telecom Italia CEO Patuano in a statement, adding that “we have overcome the price war.”
Capex for the quarter fell to EUR 933 million from EUR 1.4 billion in the year-earlier period, which the company attributed to the abandonment of certain platforms and the simplification of industrial processes, adding that the savings were partly redirected to developing its 4G and fibre networks, which saw a EUR 102 million year-on-year increase in investment. “We're keeping our promises on investments in ultra fast broadband infrastructures and have already covered 100 cities with optical fibre and over 2,500 municipalities with LTE,” said the company’s chairman Giuseppe Recchi.
Telecom Italia’s domestic mobile unit TIM reported service revenues down 5.6 percent from a year earlier to EUR 1.3 billion, hit by the ongoing Italian recession and termination rate cuts, but something of an improvement on the 13.7 percent and 16.9 percent declines posted in the previous two quarters. Telecom Italia said the result was due to the improvement in competitive performance, with progressive stabilisation of the customer base and the ARPU on voice services. TIM’s customer base stood at 30.4 million lines at the end of September, 3.7 percent down on the year-earlier figure of 31.5 million. Minutes of use rose by 14.4 percent year-on-year to reach an average of 202 minutes per customer per month, while ARPU dipped 3.0 percent to EUR 12.5. Revenues from handset sales were up 18.8 percent to EUR 95 million.
Overall fixed service revenues fell by 6.2 percent to EUR 2.7 billion, but the operator said the segment was also showing signs of recovery from the deteriorating trend observed in the first half of the year thanks to thanks to a positive trend in ARPU, supported by the higher proportion of customers with flat rate plans and service upgrades and growth in revenues from broadband services. The company is adding on average 1,500 contracts for its Tuttofibra high-speed Internet and calling service every day, so far reaching a total of 150,000 customers. Telecom Italia had a total fixed line customer base of 12.7 million at the end of September, down 5.4 percent on the year-earlier figure of 13.4 million. Broadband ARPU was up 3.9 percent year-on-year to EUR 20.0 due to the higher proportion of customers signing up to convergent plans. Retail broadband lines were up 0.6 percent year-on-year to reach a total customer base of 6.93 million.
EBITDA declined 8 percent to EUR 2.24 billion, and EBITDA margin fell to 41.4 percent from 41.4 percent a year ago. Net profit for the first nine months of the year came in at EUR 985 million compared to a EUR 902 million loss in the same period of 2013, reflecting the elimination of a EUR 2.2 billion impairment loss on goodwill. Telecom Italia’s adjusted net debt fell to EUR 26.6 billion at the end of the quarter, down from the figure of EUR 27.4 billion reported in the previous quarter and from EUR 28.4 billion at the end of September 2013.
Capex for the quarter fell to EUR 933 million from EUR 1.4 billion in the year-earlier period, which the company attributed to the abandonment of certain platforms and the simplification of industrial processes, adding that the savings were partly redirected to developing its 4G and fibre networks, which saw a EUR 102 million year-on-year increase in investment. “We're keeping our promises on investments in ultra fast broadband infrastructures and have already covered 100 cities with optical fibre and over 2,500 municipalities with LTE,” said the company’s chairman Giuseppe Recchi.
Telecom Italia’s domestic mobile unit TIM reported service revenues down 5.6 percent from a year earlier to EUR 1.3 billion, hit by the ongoing Italian recession and termination rate cuts, but something of an improvement on the 13.7 percent and 16.9 percent declines posted in the previous two quarters. Telecom Italia said the result was due to the improvement in competitive performance, with progressive stabilisation of the customer base and the ARPU on voice services. TIM’s customer base stood at 30.4 million lines at the end of September, 3.7 percent down on the year-earlier figure of 31.5 million. Minutes of use rose by 14.4 percent year-on-year to reach an average of 202 minutes per customer per month, while ARPU dipped 3.0 percent to EUR 12.5. Revenues from handset sales were up 18.8 percent to EUR 95 million.
Overall fixed service revenues fell by 6.2 percent to EUR 2.7 billion, but the operator said the segment was also showing signs of recovery from the deteriorating trend observed in the first half of the year thanks to thanks to a positive trend in ARPU, supported by the higher proportion of customers with flat rate plans and service upgrades and growth in revenues from broadband services. The company is adding on average 1,500 contracts for its Tuttofibra high-speed Internet and calling service every day, so far reaching a total of 150,000 customers. Telecom Italia had a total fixed line customer base of 12.7 million at the end of September, down 5.4 percent on the year-earlier figure of 13.4 million. Broadband ARPU was up 3.9 percent year-on-year to EUR 20.0 due to the higher proportion of customers signing up to convergent plans. Retail broadband lines were up 0.6 percent year-on-year to reach a total customer base of 6.93 million.
