Telekom reports Q4 growth, forecasts slightly higher earnings in 2023

By James Imam

BERLIN (Reuters) -Deutsche Telekom reported better-than-expected-fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, citing customer growth in Germany and strong performance from T-Mobile US, and forecast a slight rise in profits this year.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation after leases (EBITDA AL) of 9.96 billion euros ($10.58 billion) for the quarter, slightly exceeded consensus estimates of 9.9 billion euros in a poll of analysts published by the company.

The telecoms operator's quarterly revenue increased by 4.0% to 29.8 billion euros, just below consensus estimates of 30.0 billion euros.

"The upheavals in the world, and their consequences, are not without their effects on Deutsche Telekom," said Chief Executive Tim Hoettges. "But by continuing to execute our strategy, we were nevertheless able to meet all of our targets in 2022."

The company said this was achieved despite prevailing headwinds in the form of rising energy prices and the supplementary telecommunications tax imposed in Hungary.

For the full year 2022, Telekom reported revenues of 114.4 billion euros, up 6.1% from the previous year, and adjusted EBITDA AL of 40.2 billion euros, up 7.7%. The group said it now expected adjusted EBITDA AL of around 40.8 billion euros in the 2023 financial year.

Deutsche Telekom said its U.S. business T-Mobile expected to unlock synergies from its 2020 takeover of Sprint of $7.2 billion to 7.5 billion, at least 20% more than in the prior year, while integration costs in the current year were not expected to exceed $1 billion.

($1 = 0.9417 euros)

(Reporting by James Imam, Editing by Miranda Murray, Rachel More and Tomasz Janowski)