Telekom boss Timotheus Höttges is satisfied with the current figures.
(Foto: imago images/Future Image)
Berlin Deutsche Telekom is undeterred by the global economic slowdown and is raising its outlook for the second time this year. “We continue to grow in a difficult economic environment,” said company boss Tim Höttges on Thursday. Thanks to numerous new customers on the other side of the Atlantic, the Dax group is now forecasting an adjusted operating result (Ebitda AL) of around 37 billion euros for 2022 after more than 36.6 billion euros so far. Telekom is thus following the US subsidiary T-Mobile US, which is extremely important for the business and which generates more than half of the Bonn-based company’s income and has already increased its outlook.
However, the parent company still does not hold the majority of capital in T-Mobile US. It is currently 48.4 percent – according to Höttges, the share should exceed the 50 percent mark in the medium term. “We are right on schedule, even further than originally planned,” said Höttges, referring to a share buyback program and options secured from the Japanese investor Softbank. Softbank was the majority owner of the mobile operator Sprint, which has since been swallowed up by T-Mobile US.
In the second quarter, the Ebitda AL of the Bonn group with its more than 200,000 employees worldwide climbed by five percent to 9.9 billion euros. Sales increased by 5.9 percent to 28.2 billion euros, although organically they stagnated due to the strong dollar and consolidation effects. In the important home market, revenues increased by 2.7 percent, which means that Telekom did better than its smaller competitor Vodafone.
The major customer division T-Systems, whose revenues remained at one billion euros from April to June, even after a radical restructuring and thousands of layoffs, is still on the spot. According to earlier information, Telekom is examining all options for the area.
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According to Höttges, the group always asks itself: “Which assets could develop better elsewhere?” After the sale of the fixed network activities in Romania, they are currently looking for a solution for the mobile phone business. The sale of the majority of the radio tower business for 10.7 billion euros to the investors Brookfield Asset Management from Canada and DigitalBridge from Florida has now been sealed.
The transaction is to be completed in 2022 and will help Deutsche Telekom to reduce its mountain of debt of EUR 146 billion, which has increased again as a result of the Sprint integration costs in the USA. CFO Christian Illek assured: “We want to bring the ratio of net financial liabilities including leasing to adjusted EBITDA back into the comfort zone of 2.25x to 2.75x by the end of 2024 at the latest.” The value is currently 3.28x. The LBBW analysts judged that the net financial debt was still very high for the rating class. Telekom shares fell slightly.
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