STOCKHOLM, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom raised its full-year outlook for the second time on Thursday and posted better-than-expected second-quarter operating profit on the back of a strong performance at its U.S. subsidiary T-Mobile and growth in its European activities.
Gross operating surplus after rents (Ebitdaal) reached 9.9 billion euros, beating analysts’ estimates of 9.84 billion euros, according to a consensus published by the company.
The telecoms operator’s second-quarter revenue rose 5.9% to 28.2 billion euros, in line with consensus estimates.
The company now anticipates an adjusted Ebitdaal of around €37 billion in 2022, down from a previous outlook of over €36.6 billion.
Deutsche Telekom, which is struggling to reduce nearly 136 billion euros in debt, is selling its transmission tower business to free up funds to invest in infrastructure and secure control of its US subsidiary T-Mobile.
Deutsche Telekom last month agreed to sell 51% of its towers business to a consortium of Canadian firm Brookfield and US private equity firm DigitalBridge, valuing the unit at $17.5 billion. euros.
Earlier this year, the group bought additional shares of T-Mobile from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank for $2.4 billion, taking its stake in the US company to 48.4%.
T-Mobile, which accounts for three-fifths of the group’s revenue, gained subscribers after its merger with Sprint and the rollout of its 5G service.
In the last quarter, T-Mobile acquired 1.7 million customers, bringing its total base to 110 million.
Deutsche Telekom reported 54.6 million mobile customers in Germany and 46.5 million in the rest of Europe. (Report Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm, French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Kate Entringer)