News
Swiss incumbent shares plan to save 270 million in costs by 2020.
Swisscom aims to cut costs over the next five years and is undertaking a number of measures to enable it to do so, including a reduction in staff and the closure of six call centres.
The Swiss telco made the announcement on Thursday as it presented its financial results for full-year 2015, which showed virtually flat revenues, small growth in adjusted EBITDA, and a 20.2% decline in net profit.
Swisscom said that by 2020 it aims to reduce its cost base by more than 300 million francs (€270 million) from the 2015 level.
The move comes "as a result of strong competition and price pressure," said CEO Urs Schaeppi.
The cost-saving plan will include a headcount reduction. Swisscom said it expects around 700 employees will be affected by redundancies, as "some posts in traditional business areas are being lost and are replaced by jobs in new, innovative areas."
The telco said it will create up to 500 jobs this year in growth areas in its home market, but it expects to end 2016 with a slightly lower headcount than it had at end-2015.
It will book a one-of cost of CHF70 million as a result.
Swisscom will also reduce its number of customer-facing call centres to eight from 14 by the end of the year.
Its sites in Zurich, Berne, Basel, Geneva, Lucerne and Rapperswil will close, with staff relocating to other sites. However, the telco did not say whether it will retain all call centre employees.
Last year Swisscom generated CHF11.68 billion (€10.5 billion) in revenues, down 0.2%, but an increase of 0.7% on an adjusted basis. EBITDA fell by 7.1% to CHF4.1 billion, but adjusted EBITDA grew by 2.3%.
And net income slid by 20.2% to CHF1.36 billion.
"Currency effects and more intense competition with stronger price dynamic characterised our business in the last year," said Schaeppi.
"In view of the challenging environment in the ICT market, I am satisfied with our operating business. On a like-for-like basis, we achieved a slight increase in revenue as well as operating income (EBITDA)," he said.
In 2016 Swisscom expects revenue in excess of CHF11.6 billion, EBITDA of around CHF4.2 billion and capital expenditure of over CHF2.3 billion.
