German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom (DT) has reported net revenue of EUR16.842 billion (USD18.9 billion) for the first three months of 2015, an increase of 13.1% from EUR14.894 billion in the year-ago quarter, driven by a 36.1% year-on-year rise in US turnover to EUR6.905 billion. Adjusted for changes in the composition of the group and exchange rate effects, revenue increased by 4.7%. Group adjusted EBITDA totalled EUR4.574 billion for the first quarter of 2015, up 11.0% compared to EUR4.121 billion in 1Q14. The company said that reported net profit dropped from EUR1.817 billion in the first three months of 2014 to EUR787 million in Q1 2015; In the prior year, reported net profit had been dominated by the positive special effect of EUR1.7 billion from the sale of a 70% stake in online classifieds company Scout. Adjusted for special factors, net profit jumped by 76.5% year-on-year to EUR1.036 billion, with a settlement agreement with Liberty Global’s German unit Unitymedia having a positive effect of EUR175 million, while a change in accounting treatment of DT’s stake in EE as held for sale means its dividends are now recognised in profit/loss from financial activities, which also had a positive impact on adjusted net profit.
DT’s domestic operating segment generated revenue of EUR5.589 billion in the first quarter of 2015, a rise of 1.9% year-on-year, while adjusted EBITDA fell 0.9% to EUR2.211 billion, attributed to increased costs incurred from the migration to all-IP and efforts to maintain service quality. Net revenue in the Europe segment declined 0.6% to EUR3.106 billion in Q1 2015 and adjusted EBITDA decreased by 1.9% to EUR1.008 billion, with DT noting that its businesses in Austria and Hungary performed well in the first quarter, increasing both their revenue and their adjusted EBITDA. T-Mobile US reported a 36.1% year-on-year rise in 1Q15 revenue to EUR6.905 billion (or by 11.7% in local currency to USD7.7 billion) and adjusted EBITDA for the three-month period jumped 45.1% to EUR1.225 billion (18.4% to USD1.4 billion).
As at the end of March 2015 DT’s domestic wireless subscriber base stood at 39.200 million (an increase of 0.1% from 39.145 million a year earlier), while retail fixed broadband connections grew 0.7% year-on-year to 12.437 million (of which 2.094 million were fibre-based – VDSL, vectoring and FTTH – lines, up by 52.3%) and pay-TV accesses climbed 11.6% to 2.516 million. Internationally, the group’s US subsidiary ended the first quarter of 2015 with 56.836 million mobile subscribers, an increase of 15.8% from 49.065 million a year earlier, as the number of branded post-paid customers jumped 19.8% year-on-year to 28.310 million. As such, T-Mobile US has revised its forecast for customer acquisition upwards, with 3.0 million to 3.5 million net branded post-paid additions now expected in full year 2015, compared to the previous forecast of between 2.2 million and 3.2 million. Across its European operations (excluding Germany), DT’s mobile customers numbered 55.849 million at 31 March 2015, down 1.4% from 56.615 million twelve months earlier, while retail broadband lines climbed 5.3% to 5.038 million and pay-TV customers grew 5.1% year-on-year to 3.741 million at the end of 1Q15.