Telecom Italia Group (TIM Group) has reported revenues of EUR17.98 billion (USD20.33 billion) for full-year 2019, down 5.1% on comparable terms. The biggest decline was seen in Italy, where sales fell from EUR15.03 billion in FY 2018 to EUR14.08 billion last year. TIM said this was partly due to the performance of international wholesale unit TI Sparkle which is ‘in the process of repositioning its business and exiting from low margin voice contracts’. Turnover in Brazil was stable year-on-year at EUR3.94 billion. Comparable EBITDA rose 1.2% to EUR7.49 billion, from EUR7.40 billion the year before, while net profit was reported at EUR1.30 billion, reversing a loss of EUR1.15 billion the previous year which had been impacted by one-off items.
TIM had 21.00 million mobile lines in service in Italy at the end of 2019, down from 22.45 million a year earlier, while it also claimed a further 9.89 million M2M connections at the same date (up from 9.37 million at end-2018). ARPU for ‘human’ lines fell from EUR13.42 a month in 2018 to EUR12.60 last year. In the fixed market, TIM Italy had 7.59 million retail broadband subscribers at end-2019, up from 7.48 million the year before. TIM Brasil served 54.45 million mobile customers at the end of 2019, falling from 55.92 million twelve months earlier.
Separately, TIM says it is looking to create a fixed networks venture with investment fund KKR, with the latter taking a roughly 40% interest in the business. The new company, which has been dubbed FiberCop, will manage TIM’s entire copper and fibre access network. Merger discussions to combine this unit with wholesale network operator Open Fiber are still ongoing.