After strong quarterly figures: Telekom boss Höttges increases forecast again

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Works for him:

Telekom boss

Tim Höttges

exceeds expectations with the quarterly figures

Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa

Deutsche Telekom remains on the road to success, primarily thanks to the strong business of the American mobile communications subsidiary T-Mobile US. But the telecommunications giant can also grow organically in Europe, as the figures for the second quarter published on Thursday show. For the second time this year, Telekom boss

Tim Höttges

(58) raised his earnings forecast for the current fiscal year slightly: For the full year, adjusted operating earnings excluding leasing expenses (Ebitda AL) of 37.2 billion euros (previously more than 37 Billion euros). "All areas of the group increased their results in the first half of the year and thus continued the growth story of the group", said the CEO.

In the second quarter, the adjusted Ebitda AL of the entire group increased slightly by 1.1 percent to 9.4 billion euros. If you factor in exchange rate effects, the operating profit fell by 4.2 percent. Adjusted for currency effects, sales rose by 6.8 percent to 26.6 billion euros. Including the exchange rate effects and the burdens from the sale of the prepaid Boost division to a competitor, which T-Mobile US had to agree to in the course of the Sprint takeover, sales fell by 1.7 percent to 26.6 billion euros.

The free cash inflow climbed by 14 percent to 2.8 billion euros compared to the same period in the previous year.

The bottom line is that at 1.9 billion euros, more than twice as much remains with Deutsche Telekom than a year ago.

The big plus is mainly due to special effects from the purchase of Sprint in the same period of the previous year.

"This is another great team success," said company boss Höttges.

The share reacted to the numbers with an increase of almost 3 percent and was most recently listed at EUR 18.36.

That is the highest level in more than ten years.

Since the beginning of the year, the Deutsche Telekom share has risen faster than the Dax 30.

The wireless communications business in the USA was once again the largest growth driver.

Here the subsidiary T-Mobile US increased the number of mobile phone contract customers again by 1.3 million.

The total number of T-Mobile US customers reached just under 105 million at the end of the second quarter - almost 6.5 million more than a year earlier.

The US division had already raised its expectations at the end of July.

T-Systems is lagging behind

The development on the German home market was not quite as impressive.

However, thanks to a successful development in the broadband business and increasing service revenues in mobile communications, the group was able to achieve an organic increase in revenues of 1.8 percent.

In the rest of Europe the increase was 4 percent.

The major customer division of T-Systems remains a problem child.

It is making headway with its lengthy realignment, which is accompanied by the loss of thousands of jobs, but it is still not showing any growth.

Sales fell by 5.5 percent.

However, the focus on the cloud helped with incoming orders, which rose by 25.3 percent to 1.1 billion euros.

It remains to be seen how Telekom will proceed with its radio tower business or the Netherlands division.

According to insiders, bids have already been placed for T-Mobile Netherlands.

As with the Deutsche Funktturm, T-Mobile Netherlands had recently said that all strategic options would be examined.

The value of the business in the Netherlands is estimated at four to five billion euros.

mg / Reuters, dpa-afx