Telefonica announces lower than expected profits

 

Telefonica posted worse-than-expected results on Friday as its performance in its home market dragged down results.

The telecoms company posted a 30.8% rise in full-year net profit to make 10.17 billion euros below the 11.3 billion euros forecast by 10 analysts in a Reuters poll.

Revenue rose 7.1% to 60.74 billion euros and operating income before depreciation and amortisation rose 14.0% to 25.78 billion.

Telefonica's domestic business has been pummelled by the collapse of Spain's property boom, saddling Spaniards with debt and intensifying competition in telecoms.

The performance of the euro zone's largest telecom company was skewed by the one-off 3.5 billion euro gain from Vivo following its purchase of Portugal Telecom's stake in Brazil's biggest cellphone operator.