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BERLIN – Germany's Deutsche Telekom reported Thursday that its fourth quarter loss narrowed to euro3 million ($4.1 million) on improved revenue in its domestic market but said the financial crisis in Greece had cost its operations there euro500 million.
The German provider of high-speed Internet access and home and cell phone service said the quarterly loss compared with a euro730 million loss a year earlier, when the global credit crunch was most intense.
Revenue was up more than half a percent in the final three months of 2009 to euro16.2 billion, a sign of improvement in its critical home market. The figure compared with euro16.1 billion a year earlier.
The company was hurt, however, by the ongoing financial turbulence in Greece through its acquisition of Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA, or OTE, in 2008.
For the year, the company earned euro353 million in net profit, down 76 percent from nearly euro1.5 billion in 2008. Revenue, however, managed to rise nearly 5 percent to euro64.6 billion compared with euro61.6 billion the year before.
"After a bumpy start, we rounded 2009 off with good results," said Chief Executive Rene Obermann. "Cost discipline was key to getting through economically challenging times. However, we did not save at the expense of the future, but continued to invest heavily."
Late Wednesday, the company committed itself to paying dividends from this year through 2012, and proposed a dividend of 78 euro cents a share for 2009. From this year to 2012 it said it planned to pay at least a 70 euro cent per share dividend and pledged to buy back shares, a move that it said was worth around euro3.4 billion.
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On the Net:
http://www.deutschetelekom.com
