Frankfurt, Aug. 10, (dpa/GNA) – German telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom improved its full-year financial forecast slightly after beating analyst expectations for new customers.
For the full year, Deutsche Telekom now projects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation including leasing costs (EBITA AL) of €41 billion ($45.2 billion), the company announced on Thursday. The forecast is a marginal boost over previous projections from the company.
The target for free cash flow remains steady at more than €16 billion.
The slightly rosier outlook for Deutsche Telekom comes after its major subsidiary in the United States, T-Mobile, also adjusted its annual forecast slightly upwards.
Deutsche Telekom’s turnover in the second quarter fell by 2.4% to €27.2 billion compared to the same quarter in the previous year. The company attributed the drop to the continue decline of devices, which has declined dramatically for the group’s companies.
Second-quarter operating results including leasing costs (EBITA AL) rose by 1.5% to about €10 billion. Operating results for Deutsche Telekom also increased about 5% to €1.5 billion.
US subsidiary T-Mobile is also seeing major declines in the leasing of mobiles. On the other hand, they are earning much more with services such as voice and data transmissions. Service revenues rose by 1.4%.
In the German market, Deutsche Telekom gained 319,000 mobile customers under its own brands in the second quarter, almost two-thirds more than analysts expected.
Primary competitors in the German market Telefonia Deutschland (O2) reported similarly strong increases, while Vodafone counted 24,000 net contracts.
GNA