Icon: enlarge
Telekom headquarters in Bonn: 4.2 billion euros profit in 2020
Photo: Andreas Rentz / Getty Images
After taking over US competitor Sprint, Deutsche Telekom made three-digit billion sales for the first time in its history.
Group-wide revenues rose last year by 25.4 percent to 101 billion euros, as the company announced in Bonn.
"We have concluded a groundbreaking deal in the USA, improved our market position in Europe and at the same time made an important contribution to overcoming the consequences of the corona with our stable networks," said company boss Tim Höttges.
If you look at the revenues on the basis of equal shares - i.e. without sprint - and without exchange rate influences, it would have been an increase of three percent.
Foreign countries are becoming increasingly important for the former state-owned company: it did three quarters of its business there last year, and almost 70 percent in 2019.
Internet business more important due to pandemic
The profit climbed by 7.5 percent to 4.2 billion euros.
With these numbers, the company hit its 2020 targets, which it only raised in November.
In the current year the group wants to increase the operating profit.
The corona pandemic had good and bad sides for Deutsche Telekom.
The closings of stores and the limited travel activity were headwinds for the company - and because fewer people traveled to other regions of the world, roaming revenues fell.
At the same time, the importance of Internet connections grew and consumers were ready to dig deeper into their pockets than before.
Dividend remains stable
Telekom worries about its business with major customers.
They did not want to invest on a large scale during the crisis, which brought T-Systems a minus of six percent in the adjusted operating result.
The realignment of the telecommunications division, which began in 2018 and which is accompanied by the shedding of thousands of jobs, is therefore dragging on.
In the current year, Telekom will have to spend a lot of money in order to expand the networks in Germany, Europe and the USA and to convert them to the new 5G mobile communications standard.
After almost 17 billion euros that the company spent last year, the Bonn-based company want to add a little more in 2021 and invest around 18.4 billion euros.
For the shareholders, however, there will be no more.
As already announced, the dividend for 2020 will again be 60 cents per share.
Alongside Vodafone and Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom is one of the three mobile network operators in Germany; it also offers fixed-line Internet connections and does business with major customers.
Icon: The mirror
apr / dpa
