Deutsche Telekom sees 3Q profit soar

Images (showing 1 of 2 photos)

FRANKFURT — Deutsche Telekom AG reported a strong rise in third-quarter net profit on Thursday, buoyed by lower taxes and a cost-cutting program.

The Bonn-based telecommunications company, Europe's biggest, said it earned 895 million euros ($1.2 billion) in the July-September period, more than tripling the 256 million euros it reported a year earlier.

Sales slipped by 1.5 percent to just under 15.5 billion euros ($20 billion) from last year's 15.7 billion euros.

Deutsche Telekom said it was on track to meet its goals for the full year, including a pretax profit of 19.3 billion euros ($25 billion), on a par with 2007. It said its cost-savings program generated 500 million euros ($647 million) in savings in the third quarter.

The company did not provide a 2009 forecast, saying its supervisory board, the U.S. equivalent of a board of directors, had not yet approved financial planning for next year.

Chief Executive Rene Obermann said the company was "well positioned in financial terms, our balance sheet ratios are good, and our short and medium-term funding is on a broad and solid footing."

Obermann said that the financial market crisis "has so far not affected Deutsche Telekom's operations, and of course I hope things will stay that way."

"The past has shown that the telecommunications sector tends to be relatively resilient to economic developments compared with other sectors," Obermann said.

Despite his optimism, shares of Telekom closed 3.6 percent at 11.05 euros ($14.06) in Frankfurt.

Telekom said sales of the new Apple iPhone helped drive subscriber growth in Germany, but that didn't prevent sales from slipping in its home market.

T-Mobile Deutschland added another 271,000 new subscribers in the third quarter, up 82 percent from last year, with many signing onto the service in conjunction with the latest version of the popular iPhone, which launched in Germany on July 11 — and is available there only through T-Mobile.

In the first nine months of the year, 685,000 new subscribers signed up, a 19 percent increase.

However, quarterly sales in Germany were down nearly 3 percent to 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion). January-September sales showed a similar decline.

In the U.S., where T-Mobile launched the G1 Google Phone, nine-month results were pinched by the weakness of the dollar, which hit a low of $1.6038 in mid July before recovering somewhat in recent weeks.

Still, the company reported a 2.7 percent gain in the third quarter sales, while nine-month sales were up 13.7 percent to $16.2 billion.

By the end of September, T-Mobile USA had more than 32.1 million customers, an increase of 4.4 million from a year earlier.

In Britain, tough competition and the strong pound pushed third-quarter sales down 6.7 percent to 800 million pounds ($1.3 billion). T-Mobile is selling the G1 phone in Britain as well.

Telekom said that much of the improved results from T-Mobile consumers came not from voice calls, but from mobile data — or Internet use.

___

On the Net:

http://www.deutsche-telekom.de

Back To Top

	Adidas' 3Q net up 2 percent but pulls '09 guidance	Associated Press	Thu Nov 6	0
	Axa revenue slips 3.1 percent in first 9 months	Associated Press	Thu Nov 6	0
	Munich Re 3Q profit plummets, 2008 target dropped	Associated Press	Fri Nov 7	0
	Porsche's profit soars on VW stake	Associated Press	Fri Nov 7	0
	Hannover Re swings to 3Q loss of 395 million euros	Associated Press	Wed Nov 5	0