Telephone achieved in the first quarter of 2022 profits of 706 million euros ($742 million), thanks in part to good sales in Brazil and Germany, the Spanish telecommunications company reported on Thursday.
These results are much higher than those forecast by analysts consulted by the financial information provider Factset, who expected an average profit of 490 million euros.
However, they are lower than those of the first quarter of 2021 (886 million), which were boosted by favorable foreign exchange rates.
The company was able to face the “inflationary tensions and geopolitical instability” caused by the war in Ukraine, its president, José María Álvarez Pallete, congratulated.
“Telefónica has accelerated its growth in the first quarter of 2022, a period in which it has managed to increase revenues in all the markets in which it operates, in reported terms, and in which it has obtained a net profit of 706 million euros” the company announced.
The company registered an increase in sales in all the countries in which it operates, up to 9,410 million euros, with double-digit increases in Brazil (+18.1%) and Hispam (+10.9%), the Telefónica division that brings together activities in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela and Central America.
By markets, Spain represented 28% of the revenue obtained by the company; Hispam, 20%; Brazil, 18%; Germany, 18%; and the United Kingdom, 14 percent. Also by markets, 30% of OIBDA -operating profit before amortization- came from Spain; 21% from Brazil; 16% from Germany; 16%, from Hispam; and 15% from the UK.
Likewise, the company congratulated itself for having “progressed in the execution of its strategic plan”, citing the closing of the acquisition of the mobile assets of its competitor Oi in Brazil, which, it affirms, will generate synergies of some 1,000 million euros.