Telefónica invoiced 10,340 million euros in the third quarter

The Spanish telecommunications group Telefónica confirmed this Friday its objectives for 2022, after having seen its turnover increase strongly in the third quarter, despite the fact that its profits fell due to an unfavorable comparative effect.

The turnover of the telecommunications giant, which has a strong presence in Latin America, but also in the United Kingdom, reached 10.34 billion euros in this period, that is, 11.6% more than in the third quarter of 2021, of 9,260 million euros.

Its net profit reached 460 million euros, compared to 706 million euros a year ago.

This sharp drop is explained by an unfavorable comparison effect, linked to the sale last year of the telecommunications towers of its subsidiary Telxius a American Tower Corporation for 7.7 billion euros.

The results of the third quarter, which come after a solid first semester, exceeded the expectations of the analysts consulted by the financial information provider Factset, who bet on an average of 384 million euros in profits and 10,000 million euros in revenues.

These figures, achieved “despite the complex environment of global uncertainty and the deep crisis of energy and inflation”, confirm “the financial objectives planned for the whole of the year”, assured the president of Telefónica, Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete.

The Spanish multinational had revised its financial objectives upwards after the second quarter, after seeing how its commercial activity grew in its main markets, mainly in Latin America.

According to the company, this activity continued during the summer, especially in Spain and the United Kingdom, where Telefónica took advantage of the good performance of Virgin Media 02entity created from the merger last year of its British subsidiary O2 and Virgin Media.

Despite the good dynamics, the debt of the Spanish group -which faces, like all its competitors, a high level of indebtedness-, increased slightly in recent months, reaching 28.9 billion euros at the end of September, 100 million more than at the end of June.

However, this debt should be reduced in the coming months, thanks to the sale announced this summer of 45% of its subsidiary Bluevia Fibra to Crédit Agricole Assurances and Vauban Infrastructure Partners. This sale will involve almost one billion euros.

Telefónica’s results come about in a context of increased competition in the Spanish telephony market since Orange and MasMovil announced at the end of July an agreement to merge their activities in Spain, creating the second largest telecommunications company in the country.