TDC, Denmark's leading telecoms operator, reported a 7.3 percent rise in second-quarter core earnings on August 04 and raised its full-year net profit and sales forecasts.
The improved earnings stem mainly from growth in TDC's mobile operations and broadband business, offsetting a declining domestic fixed-line business. Lower Danish corporate tax allowed for the higher net profit forecast.
In the quarter, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached 3.29 billion Danish crowns ($543 million), which compared with an average estimate of 3.26 billion crowns in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.
"We are satisfied that we have been able to maintain the growth in our earnings and at the same time increase our customer base in the strategically important areas of broadband and mobile services," TDC said in a statement.
Sales rose 8.5 percent to 11.7 billion crowns, above the average forecast of 11.5 billion crowns. Adjusted for acquisitions and divestments, sales grew 4.5 percent.
The stock was up 1.5 percent at 278 crowns by 0702 GMT, outperforming the Copenhagen bourse's top-20 KFX-index, which was 0.2 percent higher.
"It's a nice result in particular in comparison with the other (Nordic) operators. The development in the Danish mobile market looks really good," said Alfred Berg analyst Lars Horslund.
Shares in TeliaSonera dropped more than 4 percent on Wednesday as the leading Nordic telecoms firm reported an unexpected drop in second-quarter earnings and said it needed to cut costs further in the face of tough competition.
At the end of the second quarter TDC's customer base totalled 14.1 million, 9.8 percent growth driven by high customer intake at its international mobile operations.
TDC's low-budget British mobile operator, easyMobile, now has 15,000 customers after launching in March.
TDC repeated its full-year EBITDA forecast of 13.1 billion crowns but raised its net profit and sales forecasts by 300 million crowns each, to 4.0 billion and 46.9 billion crowns respectively.