Latin America boosts profits at Telefonica
TELEFONICA yesterday revealed the benefits of its a long-time investment in still-booming Latin America.
The emerging region helped drive forecast-beating first quarter profit at Europe’s largest telecoms company, offsetting weakness in its home market of Spain.
Telefonica beat market expectations with a 9.8 per cent rise in net profit, as growth in Latin America– and Brazil in particular – helped offset weakness in Spain and allowed the company to stick to full year forecasts. Average revenue per user in Spain was down 9.5 per cent from the same period last year.
“Latin America continues to drive growth forward and has truly become the company’s crown jewel,” said Michael Kovacocy, European telecoms analyst at Daiwa.