 Telefonica is the largest telecoms firm in Spain and Latin America |
Telefonica, Spain's biggest telecoms group, has unveiled a surge in profits, buoyed by broadband customer growth. Net profits jumped 66% to 3.83bn euros ($5.2bn; �2.6bn) in the six months to June, driven mainly by a 35% surge in broadband customers at home and abroad.
The 1.3bn euro sale of its Airwave unit - operator of the UK's national police radio network - also boosted profits.
The group raised its forecasts for the year to a 10-13% rise in annual earnings from an 8-11% increase.
Growth
Its mobile phone businesses expanded by 15.1% overall, driven by growth in Latin America.
Elsewhere, its new pay-TV business posted strong growth in customers, surging 64.5% to 1.3 million.
However, the group lowered earnings forecasts for its German unit, warning that the market remained "challenging".
It now expects full year German sales to rise by 7-10%, down from previous forecasts of 14-17%.
Telefonica has been on the acquisition trail, spending an estimated 58.5bn euros over the past decade in an effort to boost growth.
It bought the UK mobile phone group O2 for �18bn last year and spent 4.1bn euro buying a controlling stake in Telecom Italia earlier this year.
Earlier this month, the group also revealed it had offered its partner Portugal Telecom more than 3bn euros to buy out the remaining half of their Brazilian joint venture Vivo.
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
