Telefonica's Net Profit Grew by 9.8% in Q1

Telefónica has reported that its first-quarter revenue fell dropped to EUR 13.7 billion in the first quarter of 2009, down by 1.4% compared to the first quarter of 2008. However, this was mainly as a result of the negative exchange rate effect, which reduced growth by 4.7 percentage points.

Consolidated net income for the first quarter of the year amounted to EUR 1.69 billion, 9.8% higher than at the end of March 2008.

The Telefónica Group's wireless accesses exceeded 198 million at the end of March, with net adds in the first quarter of around 2.4 million and around 22.5 million customers compared to the end of March 2008. The main drivers of the net adds in the first quarter of the year were Brazil (0.7 million), Germany (0.3 million), Mexico (0.2 million) and Argentina (0.2 million).

After reaching peak levels in the Capex/Revenue ratio (14.5%) in 2008, the Company has announced that Capex for 2009 will stand below EUR 7.5 billion with CapEx cuts in all the regions of operations, prioritising investment projects in growth businesses, mainly those related to cover the demand on broadband services, both fixed and mobile.

Posted to the site on 13th May 2009