Dutch telco KPN's profit lifted by cost cuts, retail gains

(Releads, adds detail, CEO quote, share price)

By Bart H. Meijer

AMSTERDAM, July 26 (Reuters) - Cost cutting and new retail customers helped KPN (Amsterdam: KPN.AS - news) narrowly beat market expectations with a 1.5 percent rise in second-quarter core earnings on Wednesday, lifting its shares.

The Netherlands' largest telecoms company delivered adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 601 million euros ($699 million), while analysts polled by Reuters on average predicted 584 million euros.

But although KPN's revenue slipped further, with a 3 percent fall to 1.6 billion euros, as business customers switched traditional fixed-line services for IP alternatives, its shares were up 1.5 percent to 2.998 euros at 0709 GMT.

"We continue to experience strong price competition in mobile in our large enterprise and corporate segment," KPN's Chief Executive Eelco Blok said in a statement.

However, in the consumer market, KPN managed to add more customers with both fixed and mobile services, lifting the average revenue per household by 5 percent to 42 euros.

Competition has become more intense due to the recent merger of the Dutch activities of Liberty Global (Frankfurt: A1W0FL - news) , the largest cable company, and Vodafone, KPN's biggest mobile rival, which has a combined television and mobile offering.

KPN said its ongoing restructuring brought 65 million euros in cost savings in the first half of 2017, while it maintained a full-year EBITDA forecast of around 2.4 billion euros. ($1 = 0.8595 euros) (Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Vyas Mohan/Anthony Deutsch/Alexander Smith)