German telecoms group Deutsche Telekom (DT) has reported revenue of EUR74.95 billion (USD92.3 billion) for the twelve months ended 31 December 2017, an increase of 2.5% from EUR73.09 billion the previous year. The growth was mainly driven by T-Mobile US, which posted a 5.9% year-on-year rise in turnover to EUR35.74 billion; as a result, international revenues accounted for 67.2% of DT’s total in 2017, compared to 66.3% the previous year. The Bonn-based telco posted group EBITDA of EUR23.97 billion for full year 2017, up 6.3% from EUR22.54 billion in 2016, while adjusted EBITDA grew 3.8% over the same timeframe to EUR22.23 billion. Reported net profit (including special factors) rose 29.4% from EUR2.67 billion to EUR3.46 billion over the twelve-month period, in part due to a positive non-recurring effect from the tax reform in the US totalling EUR1.7 billion in Q4, while adjusted net profit jumped 46.8% in 2017 to EUR6.04 billion. Looking ahead, DT says it forecasts adjusted EBITDA to grow by 4% in 2018 to around EUR23.2 billion.
DT’s domestic operating segment generated revenue of EUR21.93 billion in 2017, a slight increase of 0.7% year-on-year and EBITDA grew by 11.4% to EUR8.16 billion. The firm’s German mobile subscriber base reached 43.12 million at the end of 2017 (an increase of 3.0% from 41.85 million a year earlier), of which 25.89 million were post-paid customers (up 2.6%). Domestic fixed broadband lines grew 2.2% y-o-y to 13.21 million (of which 5.80 million were fibre-based – VDSL, Vectoring and FTTH – lines, up by 36.5%) and pay-TV accesses rose 9.0% to 3.14 million, while fixed network lines continued to slide, falling from 19.79 million at the end of 2016 to 19.24 million twelve months later.
T-Mobile US ended December 2017 with 72.59 million mobile subscribers, an increase of 1.6% from 71.46 million a year earlier, as the number of branded post-paid customers rose 10.5% y-o-y to 38.05 million. Total mobile customers across DT’s European operations grew by 1.9% to 48.84 million during 2017 and retail broadband lines and TV customers increased by 4.7% to 5.65 million and 4.8% to 4.24 million, respectively. Revenue in the Europe segment rose by 1.2% y-o-y to EUR11.59 billion in FY 2017, although adjusted EBITDA dropped 3.0% from EUR3.87 billion in 2016 to EUR3.75 billion the following year.