Europe's biggest telecommunications group, Deutsche Telekom of Germany, announced stronger than expected third quarter earnings thanks to robust growth at its T-Mobile unit. Adjusted net profit rose to 1.058 billion euros (1.551 billion dollars) from 990 million during the same period last year.
Adjusted third-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to 5.132 billion euros in the three months through June from 5.099 billion euros in the year-earlier period, above the 4.977 billion euros consensus.
Overall revenue jumped to 15.693 billion euros from 15.480 billion a year earlier. Analysts had forecast revenue to come in slightly lower, at 15.680 billion euros.
The T-Mobile business posted sales of 8.694 billion euros from 7.979 billion while EBITDA rose to 2.938 billion euros from 2.682 billion. The forecast was at 2.82 billion euros.
Its US mobile business grew strongly, winning 857,000 new customers against a forecast of 782,000. But in Germany, where the company is locked in tight competition with rivals, the number of customers in its fixed-line business declined by 497,000 but it won 480,000 new ones for its broadband operations.
Deutsche Telekom reiterated its full year 2007 adjusted EBITDA forecast of 19 billion euros."We are fully on track to meet our targets for 2007," said chief executive Rene Obermann. The company also gave an outlook for 2008 for the first time, saying it expects adjusted EBITDA to be stable.