Dutch telecoms group KPN on October 28 reported better-than-expected results for the third quarter as the pace of revenue decline at its consumer mobile and business units slowed. Core profit, adjusted for restructuring costs, fell 15 percent to 650 million euros ($826 million), just above the 635 million expected in a Reuters poll of five analysts.
KPN, which had a net debt to core profit ratio of 2.3 times at the end of the third quarter, said it would buy back up to 2 billion euros of bonds to reduce its gross debt.
Revenues in the group's consumer mobile unit fell by 5.6 percent from last year, as prices dropped and consumers did not spend more than was included in their monthly subscription.
This was, however, an improvement from the 9 percent decline in the second quarter.
KPN's business unit saw a 7 percent fall in revenues, also better than the 11 percent drop in the second quarter, but the group said the market environment was challenging as companies aimed to save on their telecoms bills.
Its home broadband and digital TV business performed worse than in the second quarter, with a 2.5 percent year-on-year fall in revenues, as KPN lowered prices to attract new customers.
The group, in which Mexico's America Movil has a 21.4 percent stake, repeated its guidance for its financial performance to stabilise towards the end of the year, with investments remaining below 1.4 billion euros.
The group said it would pay a dividend of 0.07 euros for the 2014 financial year, with 0.02 euros paid earlier in October and the rest to be paid in April 2015.
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