KPN posted a strong set of financials for the third quarter of this year, as earnings increased and sales growth at its domestic mobile business helped mitigate the impact of a revenue decline at its business division.
The Netherlands-based operator reported adjusted EBITDA of €640 million in the three months to the end of September, up 4.6% on the same period a year earlier.
The increase was driven by growth in the telco’s customer base and the impact of cost savings, although these were in part offset by a revenue decline at its business segment, KPN said.
The company posted group turnover of €1.76 billion, down 2.6% on Q3 2014.
Its residential consumer business reported revenues of €486 million, up from €477 million a year earlier, while its domestic mobile unit brought in €376 million, up 6.2%. However, its business division saw sales fall by 7.2% to €655 million.
"In Consumer, the inflection in financial performance is being driven by continued customer base growth as a result of our differentiated competitive position via fixed-mobile bundling," said KPN chief executive officer Eelco Blok, in a statement.
KPN added 33,000 consumer broadband customers during the quarter to take its total to 2.87 million, and added 33,000 TV subscriptions to reach 2.2 million. It claims to have raised its broadband market share to 41% and its TV share to 28%.
On the mobile side KPN had a total customer base of 7.68 million at the end of the quarter. Its postpaid net additions during the three months came in at 88,000, including 80,000 at the retail level.
Net adds were driven by 4G services, data-centric propositions, and take-up of f ixed-mobile bundles, KPN said.
"In Business, we are operating in a rapidly changing environment with traditional services declining," Blok admitted. "We are transforming the Business organisation to increase customer satisfaction, benefit from new services and support profitability going forward," he said.
At group level KPN swung to a net profit of €87 million, compared with €75 million loss a year earlier.
It said it is on track to meet its full-year outlook of adjusted EBITDA in line with 2014, capex of less than €1.3 billion, and free cash flow, excluding dividends from Telefonica Deutschland, of more than €500 million.
