FILE PHOTO: A woman carrying her phone passes by the logo of German telecommunication company Deutsche Telekomat the ITS World Congress 2021 in Hamburg, Germany, October 13, 2021. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo
(Reuters) -Deutsche Telekom reported first-quarter core profit slightly above analyst expectations on Thursday and nudged up its full-year guidance, helped in part by a stronger dollar.
The Germany-based telecoms group reported quarterly adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation after leases (EBITDA AL) of 11.3 billion euros ($12.7 billion), up 7.9% year-on-year.
Analysts had forecast core profit of 11.1 billion euros in a company-provided poll.
The group nudged up its 2025 core profit guidance to about 45 billion euros from 44.9 billion previously. It also expects free cash flow after leases of about 20 billion euros, from 19.9 billion earlier.
This comes after Telekom's New York-listed subsidiary T-Mobile US in April raised its core profit guidance, even as it missed first quarter estimates for wireless subscriber growth.
"We are yet again proving our resilience in the face of a challenging environment," CEO Tim Höttges said in a statement on Thursday.
The Bonn-headquartered company said its reported core profit was higher in part due to a stronger U.S. dollar over the three-month period ended March 31 compared with the previous year.
Its free cash flow jumped 52.4% from the same period last year, more than one billion euros above analyst expectations.
In its home region of Germany, however, Telekom flagged strong competition in a slowing broadband market and reported a net loss of 7,000 customers.
UBS analyst Polo Tang said this might reflect Vodafone's use of "indirect channels", like price comparison site Check24.
"Investors might be surprised or uncomfortable with negative German broadband trends," said ODDO BHF analyst Stephane Beyazian.
Outside Germany, Europe remained strong, Beyazian added, pointing to an organic 3.7% revenue increase.
Deutsche Telekom shares were down 0.2% at 0720 GMT, but have risen around 9% year-to-date.
($1=0.8933 euros)
(Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier and Maria Rugamer. Editing by Rachna Uppal and Mark Potter)
