Telecom Italia has reported a drop in both sales and profits for full year 2015, with total consolidated revenue down 4.6% to EUR19.72 billion (USD22.37 billion). The firm said its results were impacted by EUR1.08 billion of one-off charges and a 25.8% slide in sales in its main overseas market of Brazil, though it said there was a return to positive growth at its domestic mobile unit. Consolidated EBITDA plunged 17.9% to EUR7.00 billion, although without the one-time charges, which include reorganisation and restructuring costs, the drop would have been 4.5%. Capital expenditure totalled EUR5.20 billion in the 2015 financial year, EUR213 million more than in 2014, with around three-quarters of the spending in Italy and the remainder in Brazil.
In operational terms, the domestic unit TIM claimed 30.01 million customers at the end of 2015, down from 30.35 million twelve months earlier, while the number of fixed lines in service dropped from 12.48 million to 11.74 million. There was an increase in the number of retail and wholesale broadband lines, however, with the total rising from 8.75 million at end-2014 to 8.89 million a year later. The Brazilian unit TIM Brasil reported a sharp drop in the number of subscribers in 2015, from 75.72 million at the start of the year to 66.23 million by end-December, giving it approximately 26% of the country’s mobile market in user terms.
Meanwhile, Telecom Italia has unveiled its 2016-18 investment plan, including projected spending of EUR12 billion in Italy over the next three years, with EUR3.6 billion going on the rollout of new fibre-optic broadband infrastructure. The firm wants to cover 84% of the country with fibre networks by end-2018, while its 4G mobile network will reach 98% of the population by the same date.