The Telefónica Group reported a sharp acceleration in the growth of revenues (+24.2% year on year) and the profitability of operations (OIBDA +20% year-on-year and OI +24.5% year-on-year) for the first nine months of 2005. Q3 was characterized by the strong commercial activity primarily in high growth businesses (mobile and broadband). Some highlights:
- Significant year-over-year growth of 37.8% in the customer base to 147.7 million total accesses, of which 89 million corresponded to mobile telephony customers and 4.4 million related to retail ADSL lines in Spain, Latin America and the Czech Republic.
- Free cash flow rose 13.4% to EURs 7.61 billion.
- In Q3, net profit jumped 53.3%, while revenues, OIBDA and OI advanced 32.3%, 27.8% and 29.1%, respectively.
- CAPEX increased 38.3% to EURs 3.33 billion, driven primarily by investment in broadband, both in Spain and Latin America, and by investment to expand mobile network capacity in Spain, Brazil and Mexico.
- Telefónica de España also revised its revenue guidance upwards from its initial range of +0.5% to +2% to an estimate of over 4%.
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