Deutsche Telekom profit beats estimates

STOCKHOLM: Deutsche Telekom reported core profit above market estimates on Friday and raised its full-year outlook for the third time, boosted by its US unit T-mobile, along with growth in European business.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation ater leases (EBITDA AL) stood at 9.66 billion euros ($11.05 billion), beating consensus estimates of 9.35 billion euros in a poll of analysts published by the company.

The company raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA AL to around 38 billion euros, up from the previous outlook of at least 37.2 billion euros.

“Our businesses are performing even beter than expected,” Chief Executive Officer Tim Hötges said in a statement. “Following strong figures in the first nine months, we are seting the bar for 2021 a litle higher.

T-mobile, which accounts for three-fiths of group sales, has been gaining subscribers following its merger with Sprint and as it rolls out its 5G service.

In the latest quarter T-mobile added 1.3 million customers who pay their bills monthly, liting its subscriber base to 106.9 million customers. Deutsche Telekom has 52.2 million customers in Germany and 46.4 million in rest of Europe.

Deutsche Telekom now owns 48.4% of T-mobile US, within touching distance of majority ownership over the US operations.

The telecoms operator’s third-quarter revenue increased by 2% to 26.88 billion euros, but fell short of consensus estimates of 27.15 billion euros.