News
Telco earmarks 2016 capex of 750 million, slightly below 2015 level; group customer numbers hit 24 million.
Telekom Austria attributed a solid set of 2015 financial results to a positive performance in its home market and to cost efficiencies and synergies with parent company America Movil.
Revenues for the full year, excluding currency effects and other one-off items, grew by 1.3% to €4.1 billion, while adjusted EBITDA grew 4% to €1.37 billion.
The telco turned in a net profit of €392.8 million, compared with a €185.4 million loss in 2014.
Telekom Austria CEO Alejandro Plater heralded the numbers as the telco’s "best set of full-year results of the past five years."
However, he warned of challenges ahead.
"Our industry is currently facing unprecedented upheavals on a global level," Plater said, in a statement accompanying Telekom Austria’s results late on Tuesday. "We must, therefore, invest in infrastructure, new technologies and know-how moving forward. This requires a solid financial basis and, above all, further growth," he said.
In order to achieve that growth, Telekom Austria forecasts 2016 capex, before spectrum investments and acquisitions, of €750 million, which is just shy of the €780 million it spent in 2015. It also sees revenue increasing by 1%.
More than half of the telco’s 2015 capital spend was in its home market. It invested €452.4 million in Austria, up 13.5% on the previous year.
Telekom Austria generated €2.53 billion in revenues in Austria last year, up 2.2% on 2014, while clean EBITDA grew by 17.3% to €886.3 million.
At group level, Telekom Austria exceeded the 24 million customers mark for the first time, ending the year with 3.37 million fixed access lines – an increase of 23.7% over the 12 months – and 20.71 million mobile customers, up 3.5%.
